Captured By A Dragon
by headagainstthesky
Summary: Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley couldn't be more different. So different, in fact, that someone is willing to sacrifice anything to make Draco follow in his father's footsteps... someone who wants Ginny dead.
1. September First

A/N: Welcome to another Draco/Ginny romance. Rated R for language, a little violence, and a little more than romance.

Chapter One: September First

Draco Malfoy was a boy of many mysteries. No one knew much about him, what he liked and disliked, his favorite color. No one knew the actual Draco. No one really cared.

Draco was sitting in a train compartment on the Hogwarts Express, the train rattling along its tracks. The sun was setting in the dark blue sky, and the mountains were now becoming dimmer in the black shadows. Rain was splattering against the window, making him calmer than he had been for a long while. He was dreading the upcoming school year for some reason. It was his 7th year, the very last he would have to endure of that godforsaken school, and even though it had not even started, he was already dying for it to be over. Things had definitely changed over the past few months, and Draco was now faced with lonely times ahead.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, Draco's thickheaded companions, had long been stripped from their titles of Draco's 'bodyguards', you could say. None of them were really friends, not truly. The three of them drifted apart, Crabbe and Millicent Bulstrode becoming unusually close, and Goyle hanging around Adrian Pucey every waking hour of the day. Draco didn't mind all that much. He liked being alone. At least, he told himself that everyday.

Suddenly, interrupting Draco's thoughts about Crabbe and Goyle's parting of the ways, his compartment door practically flew open, startling him so much that he almost let out a terrified yelp. Draco whipped his head around to see who had made this sudden intrusion and saw the most illuminate shade of red he had ever seen.

Ginny Weasley was latching the door shut when Draco loudly cleared his throat, causing her to gasp and spin around quickly toward his direction, breathless. She was wearing muggle attire, a plain black sweater and jeans, which caused Draco to despise the girl even more, if that was possible.

"Malfoy!" she cried. After a few moments of steady breathing, she looked at him with daggers in her eyes. "What the hell are you doing in here? I thought this was empty."

Draco glared at her. "You thought wrong, Weasley. Now get out of my compartment before I _make_ you get out."

Surprisingly, Ginny didn't look remotely scared or defeated. She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes even more at him. "Try it, Malfoy," she told him menacingly. "One day you'll get your comeuppance."

Before Draco could even make a scathing reply, she opened the compartment door, turned on her heel, and strode away coolly. _She'll get hers_, Draco thought to himself, and he turned his head to the window once more, muttering to himself.

&&&&&&&&&&

As the Hogwarts Express rolled down the valley on its train tracks, Ginevra Weasley was thinking deeply in her train compartment. She had managed to find an empty one about ten minutes after leaving Malfoy and their small backbiting and was now sitting with her legs crossed, her head against the back of the seat and her eyes closed. Malfoy was the particular person she was thinking about.

What was with him? She had met no one quite like Draco Malfoy, no one as rude or obnoxious. And not only that, but where had his Crabbe and Goyle cronies got to? Ginny had noticed towards the end of the year before that he was always without them.

She thought about this for a considerable amount of time before uncontrollably thinking that Malfoy was possibly the most handsome boy she had ever laid eyes on.

Almost immediately she squashed this out of her brain and shook her head, wondering why on earth she would think such a thing. Malfoy couldn't be handsome. He was rude and obnoxious, point blank. And someone who was as rude and obnoxious as Malfoy could never be handsome. _Yes_, Ginny thought. _Point blank._

&&&&&&&&&&

The train then came to a complete stop, and Ginny got up out of her seat. She opened the compartment door and walked out of the train onto the platform. It seemed as though none of the students were quite ready to dismount the train, as she was the only one who stumbled out. Looking around, she supposed that since she had put her robes on earlier the others were falling behind.

The first thing Ginny saw was the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid.

"Hello, Hagrid," she said quietly, looking up at him. Hagrid started; it seemed as though he had not seen her, being the enormous size that he was. He turned toward and looked down and his mouth turned into a wide grin.

"Oh, hello, Ginny! Excited this year?" Hagrid asked cheerfully.

"Not really."

It was, after all, the truth. Nothing had changed over the summer; she had not met any new friends, or had a budding romance, or learned a new language. The year ahead was already looking extremely dull.

"There's a new girl this year," Hagrid told her, almost as if he didn't hear her answer. "She transferred from Beauxbatons. She's in 7th year."

Ginny was keenly interested.

"What's her name?" she questioned.

"Dunno. Blank somethin'. French," said Hagrid.

Before Ginny could say anything in response, the rest of the Hogwarts students started coming out of the train onto the platform, and Ginny saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione get out right near her.

"Oh, there you are, Ginny," Ron said to her once her saw her. "We didn't know where you were. Neville and Luna said that you weren't even with them."

Ginny didn't answer this at once. She secretly knew the reason why she had left their compartment earlier; she always felt rather uncomfortable around the trio, not being in their year, and had gotten tired of being ignored. She had told them that she was going to find Neville and Luna, though really she had wanted some time to herself.

"I – er… shared a compartment with some other girls from my year. No big deal," Ginny said.

"Oh," said Ron, shrugging. Then, quite suddenly, his face brightened with excitement and he said, "Did you hear? Harry asked Cho Chang out!"

At this, Harry blushed a deep rose-red and glared at him.

"Thanks, Ron. That wasn't in any way awkward," he said sarcastically.

Ginny's jaw dropped. _Cho Chang_? Right after Ron had said that, she very much wanted to slap Harry round the face, and not just because she was jealous. She almost said, "Isn't she that ditz who wears so much makeup you can't see her face?" but held back wisely. It was enough that Cho was beautiful, and exceptional at Quidditch, but now she had Harry, too? What more could a girl like her possibly ask for?

"Wait a minute..." Ginny said suddenly, her eyebrows knitted. "Isn't she out of school?"

"Nah. Parents held her back. Said she didn't get enough N.E.W.T.s." said Ron, looking off into the sky. Harry blushed a little and said, "You don't have to tell the whole world."

_Tell the whole world what?_ Ginny thought. _That your new girlfriend's an idiot?_

"Shall we go to the carriages?" said Hermione, breaking off the conversation and pointing her head to the Thestral-drawn carriages that awaited them.

"Yes," said Harry quickly, glad that the subject had been changed. All of them made their way to a carriage, slightly slipping every once in awhile from the fresh new mud that the rain had produced for them. Unbelievably, there were only two carriages left. Ginny guessed that all of the students were as hungry as starving chimaeras, and had taken their carriages as fast as they could.

"Whoa, how did we get held back so far?" Ron laughed, noticing this as well. They began walking to the carriage in front when a familiar voice came from it.

"Hello!" It was Neville, accompanied by Dean and Seamus. All of their heads were sticking out of the carriage window, making them look a lot like Fluffy, Hagrid's old three-headed dog.

"We have room for about three more," said Dean eagerly, looking around the carriage and back at the four of them. "Who'd like to join?"

Without hesitation, Harry, Ron, and Hermione immediately started to walk forward, leaving Ginny behind.

"What about me?" she said loudly, feeling rather lonely now that she knew she'd have to have a carriage all by herself, not to mention the very last one.

"You can go in the other one, Gin," Ron told her simply, unfazed by her obvious feeling of rejection, and with that, he closed the carriage door behind him. Ginny opened her mouth to perhaps shout out a rude comment, but the carriage began to move, and Ron stuck his head back inside. She was now standing alone in the middle of the muddy road, more agitated than she had been in quite awhile.

"Fine, you can leave me out here, who cares anyway?" she muttered to herself, turning around to the other carriage. As she opened the carriage door, she saw that someone was already sitting in it.

"Malfoy!" she said with a slight laugh. "Is this going to be a continuous cycle?"

Malfoy looked over to her, surprised by her sudden appearance. His face was expressionless, yet his eyes were gleaming as though he wanted to kill her.

"Who said you could come in here? Aren't there any _other_ carriages?" he said haughtily.

"No, you took the last one," Ginny told him, getting into the carriage unsteadily and closing the door.

"Great," mumbled Malfoy. He turned his incredibly white head toward the window and the carriage started toward the castle. Ginny looked over at him with a little apprehension... she wanted to say something, but she was afraid it would make him angrier.

"Er - I heard there's a new girl in your year," she finally said, breaking the silence that had surrounded them. Malfoy stared at her.

"Are you actually _talking_ to me, Weasley? I don't think I gave you permission, did I?" he spat. His eyes were still gleaming.

Ginny glowered at him, clearly insulted. "I don't need permission to talk to you, Malfoy. How could you be so uncouth?" she said angrily.

Malfoy scowled. "Weasley, you don't even _deserve_ to be speaking to me, I don't go as low as your level," he told her, trying to get her upset.

Ginny refused to give in, however. She simply smiled and said sarcastically,

"Oh yes, I forgot. You go _lower_."

Malfoy glared at her and did not say anything more.

&&&&&&&&&&

As the carriage rolled along the wet Hogwarts grounds, Draco couldn't help but stare at Ginny's practically radiating hair, the candles within the carriage illuminating every strand.

_Her head could start bleeding and no one would even notice_, he thought, smirking.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the carriage came to a stop in front of the extravagant Hogwarts doors, which had been thrown open as a welcoming gesture. Ginny slowly got out of the carriage, barely taking a side look at Draco before disappearing. It had been the smallest of glances that Ginny had given him, but he couldn't help but wonder why she would do such a thing. Odd family, the Weasleys. Glancing at people like that.

Shaking his head of all thoughts, Draco stepped out of the carriage, looking around with dull eyes. For a split second, he wished he was back at the manor, but then he remembered what happened the last time he was there… A moment later, Draco was strutting into the great hall, finally taking a seat at the Slytherin Table next to Blaise Zabini.

"Hello," said Blaise, not looking at him. His eyes were wandering around the Great Hall, looking unusually excited.

"Hi," Draco replied stiffly. He wasn't really in the mood to talk; all he wanted to do was eat and then go to bed, considering he was very tired.

"Look at that!" Blaise suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the Great Hall doors.

Draco whipped his head to where Blaise was pointing, and the first years were coming through, looking very scared. There was one there, however, who was about two feet taller than all of them.

A radiant girl with dark brown hair and amazingly beautiful lips was in the line of first years, no certain emotion on her face. She looked around the Great Hall, eyeing everyone with a sort of resentment.

"She doesn't look very happy, does she?" said Draco to Blaise.

"It's probably because she's from Beauxbatons. They all were pretty snobbish about Hogwarts," Blaise responded.

"Who wouldn't be?" Draco said. "This place is a complete joke. Durmstrang would be so much better."

Blaise decided not to reply, and Draco watched as the first years walked to the High Table.

The Sorting Hat sat on its stool, and the first years stared at it apprehensively. Suddenly, its brim opened up and it started to sing.

_Once, long ago, when Hogwarts newly stood_

_I watched as the founders argued_

_About how to sort each student_

_Into which house that they belong to_

_Great Gryffindor set eyes on me_

_And picked me up and told the rest,_

"_This smart hat shall do our bidding_

_To decide which house is best!"_

_Gryffindor, for all the brave_

_Ravenclaw, for brains_

_Slytherin, for the cunning_

_Hufflepuff, all that remains_

_And since our loving founders_

_Are all long gone, you see_

_I am here to put you_

_In the place that you should be!_

_So put me atop your Hogwarts head_

_For it is you I'd like to know_

_I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I shall tell you where to go!_

When the Sorting Hat finished, the Great Hall applauded, everyone except the first years. It seemed as though they had never seen a talking hat before. Blaise turned to Draco and said, "I wonder why the song was shorter this year?"

Draco laughed. "Maybe it has its own suggestion box."

Blaise rolled his eyes.

"When I call your name, put the Sorting Hat on your head," said Professor McGonagall loudly, holding up the Sorting Hat. "Then, once it calls out your House, you may sit down at that table."

"Borgan, Jennifer!"

A trembling little girl stepped up and sat on the stool, looking out at all of the students in the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall put the Sorting Hat on her head, and the girl started to tremble even more.

After a few moments, the Sorting Hat made its decision.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Great Hall clapped kindly, and Jennifer Borgan went to go sit at the Hufflepuff table, now smiling. After the applause quieted down, Professor McGonagall called out the next student to be sorted.

"Cross, Joseph!"

The boy called Joseph Cross walked, trembling, to the Sorting Hat. After about two seconds the Sorting Hat shouted,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The little boy enthusiastically dashed to his table where he was greeted by a generous crowd of Gryffindor 5th years. Draco yawned widely, wishing he were asleep in his comfortable four-post.

"Du Gris, Blanc!"

At that moment, the girl that Draco and Blaise were talking about walked forward to the front of the group and sat down onto the stool, clearly not impressed with the Sorting Ceremony. Draco himself jolted forward and gave all of his attention to the girl. It seemed that everybody else had done this as well.

Professor McGonagall then sat the Sorting Hat on her head, and the entire Great Hall waited in bated breath. Then, out of the blue, the Sorting Hat started to talk aloud.

"Hm… right. You have a lot of temper, I see. Ambitious, yes. Slytherin would be good… but maybe Ravenclaw as well. Definitely not Hufflepuff, I can tell you that… right. Gryffindor would not suit you… cunning and sly… hm… I'd say… SLYTHERIN!"

At the Sorting Hat's words, the girl slid off the stool, looking extremely bored and went to go sit at the Slytherin table, which was the only table clapping loud and hard. The rest of the Great Hall seemed to be faltering at the moment the Sorting Hat had announced the House in which she was sorted into.

Once the clapping died down, Professor McGonagall called out another name, and another. Ginny yawned widely as the Sorting Hat bellowed out the new students' houses.

"RAVENCLAW!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Ginny looked over at the Slytherin table and her eyes settled on Draco Malfoy. _He is very curious_, she thought. What was even more curious was the fact that he, Crabbe, and Goyle were all spaced lengthily apart and had not acknowledged each other the entire time they had been there.

Soon enough, there was only one first year left.

"Zimmerman, Laurel!" Professor McGonagall barked.

After the girl was declared a Slytherin, she ran to her table and Professor Dumbledore stood up, making the Great Hall go silent.

"Yet another year!" he said, smiling at them all, the same twinkle in his eye. "May you all have a wonderful time here! Dig in!"

Dumbledore sat back down, and Draco saw that the plates in front of him had already filled up with food, and the students promptly tore apart every last chicken leg.

&&&&&&&&&&

As the desserts cleared, Dumbledore stood up once more.

"Now that we have all been energized with food and drink, I am sorry to tell you all that you must lie down to rest. Goodnight!"

Ginny stood up with the rest of the Gryffindor table, her belly full of chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, peas, and chocolate éclairs. She was very tired, and she was ready to fall asleep in seconds.

Ginny walked out of the Great Hall and up to Gryffindor Tower, feeling rather nauseous. She had a strange feeling that out of all of her years, this one would be different... somehow... somehow...

The feeling went away almost as instantly as it had come. Ginny didn't know why she would feel such a thing... what was it? All too soon, she had already reached the Fat Lady, who looked down at her, eyebrows raised. Obviously she was not expecting anyone else; Ginny must have lagged behind from being so exhausted.

"Er -could you tell me the password? I'm all alone," she said warily, afraid of what was about to come.

"Absolutely not!" the Fat Lady shrieked in obvious outrage. "I don't even know if you're a Gryffindor!"

Ginny rubbed her face, frustrated, wanting more than anything for someone to eventually come along and help her out. For a moment, she had a vision of a swaggering boy walking past her and yelling out the password as if he had caught a Tourette's Hex.

"I'm a 6th year!" Ginny said loudly, turning back to the Fat Lady. "You should know me by now! I'll blast your portrait to pieces if I have to!"

The Fat Lady, looking very appalled by Ginny's threat, frowned at her as a mother would when their daughter walked into the house at two in the morning.

"It's 'widdershins', but don't expect me to tell you that next time!" she said heatedly as she opened up, defeated.

Ginny sighed with relief and walked through the portrait hole, into the common room. No one was in there at the time, so she supposed they were up in bed already.

She crept up to her dormitory, changed into her pajamas, got into her bed, and fell asleep faster than you could say 'sleeping draught'.


	2. At The Quidditch Pitch

Chapter Two: At The Quidditch Pitch

"Quidditch shall begin early this year, students!"

Breakfast had merely begun ten minutes before. Dumbledore was standing superiorly at the Staff Table, surveying them all through his half-moon spectacles, his blue eyes twinkling. Every student merely gaped at him, trying to absorb what he had just said. Quidditch – early? Quidditch season had always started in November, why the sudden the eagerness to start it two months before it regularly took place? No one said a word, however, and let him continue, listening intently.

"The professors and I," said Dumbledore, "have discussed this matter rather sporadically, but it has come to a decision that under the circumstances of upcoming weather, we would like to make sure the safety of our House team players is unquestionable. Not to mention some very persuasive pleads from various teachers…" his eyes twinkled towards none other than Oliver Wood, to his left, who was swelling with pride. This was his second year of taking Madam Hooch's place, ever since she retired in the middle of Draco's 6th year. "…Who wish to start the season as soon as possible."

To Draco's surprise, a 4th year girl at the Ravenclaw table with long blonde hair said in a booming voice, "When is the first match?" Every head in the Hall, which had swiveled in her direction, turned back toward Dumbledore.

"The first Quidditch Match will be taking place after breakfast on Thursday, September 4th, Slytherin against Gryffindor," Dumbledore said.

There was some whispering and muttering toward this announcement where Draco distinctly heard Harry Potter all the way from the Gryffindor table yell to his team, "TWO DAYS TO PRACTICE?"

Draco groaned. Another bloody match versus Potter, the tragic hero who, he thought bitterly, I've never beaten in a Quidditch match. Fantastic.

"I suggest that those House Quidditch Teams practice their best, and we'll all be looking forward to the match on Thursday. Thank you!" Dumbledore happily told them, breaking Draco's thoughts, and he sat back down, turning at once to Professor McGonagall to continue chatting.

After Dumbledore had finished speaking, the Great Hall broke into talk and laughter again, and Draco grumpily set down his fork, which had been poised in front of his mouth before Dumbledore had stood up for his announcement. Since he only had two days to start warming up for Quidditch again, he thought that skipping breakfast and walking down to the pitch for a few good circles around the stands would be refreshing.

He got up quickly and hurried out of the Great Hall, failing to notice that only a minute before him, Ginny Weasley did the exact same thing.

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny was fuming. She had never been so angry with Harry Potter in her life.

_"Another match against Slytherin!" Ron yelled furiously, not troubling to keep his voice down. A few looked over at him, amused, but merely chuckled to themselves before continuing to eat their meals._

_"Ron, calm down. Gryffindor will win as usual; it's no big deal. It's not as if Harry hasn't beaten Malfoy before," Hermione told Ron, rubbing his shoulder soothingly._

_Ginny rolled her eyes at this. For some reason, she couldn't stand the fact that Gryffindor always won everything, and it always happened to be Harry who won it. And what was that about Malfoy? It's not as if he was the only member of the Slytherin Quidditch team, why did they always take the mickey out on him? Well, she knew that he was a horrible git, but that didn't mean they were better than him. Especially Harry; Hermione somehow always thought he was invincible or something, that he was the best Quidditch player in a million years, what a load of -_

_"Ginny, what are you doing?" Harry said._

_Ginny looked up. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all staring at her with puzzled eyes; apparently she had been wringing her muffin angrily in the midst of her thoughts. Its contents were now spread all across her plate, looking as though Cornish Pixies had been waging war on the innocent pastry._

_"Er -"_

_"Ginny, is something up?" Ron said, his worried expression quite obvious. "You've been acting strange lately. I think you need to eat something."_

_Ron put bacon, eggs, and a piece of toast on Ginny's plate._

_"Go on, dig in," he told her, taking the marmalade and spreading it on her toast in a brotherly manner. Ginny looked at Harry and Hermione, no certain expression on her face, and sighed. She turned her head back to Ron, who was licking his fingers clean._

_"Ron, I'm fine," she told him in a flat tone, pushing her plate away._

_"It looks like someone just dumped you," Harry muttered abruptly. Ginny shot him a death glare, not believing what she just heard from him._

_"Excuse me?" she said threateningly. Her eyes were wide, and her eyebrows were practically invisible behind her fringe. She almost dared him to say what she thought he was going to say; she wanted him to provoke her…_

_"You know - the usual girl that's been dumped. A girl with red eyes, bad hair, looks like she hasn't showered for a while. Have you been dumped?" _

_The magic words had been said. Without warning, Ginny's voice hardened as she looked at Harry with narrowed eyes._

_"I showered this morning, thank you very much," she said. Hermione's face wore the most anxious expression Ginny had ever seen on her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going to the library now -"_

_She paused, and her eyes met Harry's in that single silent morning before she devilishly grinned._

_"- I need to learn some new hexes."_

_Standing up hastily, she then stormed out of the Great Hall, Harry and Ron watching her go with looks of shock, Hermione's jaw dropped so low that she easily could have fit a bowtruckle inside of it. _

Ginny was outside now, walking on the Hogwarts grounds… past the lake… and now she was on the Quidditch Pitch.

The girl fell down to the ground harshly, tucked her knees up, put her arms around them, and cried; cried like a little baby. Why she was crying, she really didn't know. Everything had piled up on her so suddenly: Harry and Cho, him, Ron, and Hermione being unusually cold toward her. She didn't get it. She didn't get anything. She was a sixteen-year-old girl who was confused out of her mind. Why the hell was she crying? Why did Harry go back to Cho? Why couldn't have Ron turned out to be a nice _sister_? How -

"Weasley?"

Ginny opened her eyes wide. She wished more than anything to be able to be anywhere than where she was right at the moment; she wished more than anything to turn around and see anyone other than who she knew it was.

"Is that you?"

There he went again.

Reluctantly, Ginny stood up slowly, turned around, and was face-to-face with none other than Draco Malfoy.

&&&&&&&&&&

"Yeah, it's me," said Ginny. Her eyes were pointedly staring at her hands, anywhere but where he was standing. Her cheeks were magenta with embarrassment.

"You were crying, weren't you?" Draco asked delightedly out of nowhere. Ginny finally looked up and scowled at him. Draco noticed that even when she scowled, she looked so…

"What's it to you? You don't give a shit."

Draco laughed nastily, his eyebrows raised.

"Very true," he said, looking at her with what seemed to be amusement. "I was only asking."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him as she had done with Harry earlier. Deciding to just leave instead of having a heated argument with Malfoy, she began walking back toward the castle, but, unexpectedly, Draco blocked her way, his pale gray eyes leering down at her.

"If you'll move out of my way," she hissed angrily, "I'm going back to the castle. Step aside, Malfoy."

Draco's legendary smirk answered back, and without saying a word, he moved to the side obligingly. Ginny swept past him, not even looking at him. She decided that once she got up to the castle she would take a nice, long bath and perhaps drown herself beneath the bubbles. Yes, that was good idea. Unfortunately for Ginny, this idea was immediately put to a halt when, after taking no more than two steps, Draco suddenly spoke.

"It was about Potter, wasn't it?"

Ginny froze in her tracks. Fury surged through her veins, and she thought of quickly pulling out her wand to put a Bat Bogey Hex on him before involuntary rushing back to Draco, pulling him by the collar of his robes, and pushing him to the ground forcefully. Draco let out a loud "OOF" and glared back up at Ginny.

"WHAT THE BLOODY – "

"_Who do you think you are_?" Ginny said, her teeth gritted and a face so frightening it was enough to shut Draco's mouth. "Do you think I'm a fucking weakling? **Do you**?"

Draco gazed up at her, clearly surprised at her actions, more so her words. He didn't move, however, but remained on the muddy ground, his knees in the grass.

"Look, Weasley, if you'll let go of me now, I'm going to practice."

Ginny looked down at his arms and noticed for the first time that he was carrying his broomstick. She looked back at him crossly, pretending she hadn't noticed. She could just about break every bone in Malfoy's body at that moment, the slimy git with his stupid money, and his stupid broomstick, and his stupid haircut -

"There are two ways this could end," Draco said to her, bringing Ginny back to Earth with an unpleasant bump. "One, you could let go of me and I could practice my Quidditch, or two, you could not let go and end up with boils all over your private area."

Ginny raised an eyebrow, having a strange urge to laugh. She realized she had better things to do than holding Malfoy down with his collar, so she released his robes from her hand and backed away, half-grinning. Malfoy got up, wiping the mud off of his robes. Ginny didn't leave; she wanted to talk to Malfoy for some reason; perhaps it was because there was a fear inside of her of what would happen when she went to the Gryffindor Tower, finding Harry there when she had just practically said that she wanted to look up a hex to use on him.

The grin suddenly slid from Ginny's face, and now she looked rather serious.

"You were right," she said quietly. Draco looked up at her, confused.

"About what?" he asked snappishly.

"I was crying," said Ginny, and she looked into Draco's startling gray eyes. "About Har - Potter." She had almost said Harry, but then thought ridiculously that Malfoy, who had never once called Harry by his first name, may not have known whom she was talking about.

Draco simply stared at her, once again showing no emotions on his face; Ginny didn't even have the slightest clue of what he was thinking.

His mouth then broke into a sneer. "I knew it," he said, wiping more mud off of his robes. He looked back up at Ginny. "Why?"

Ginny sighed. She felt really rather desperate to tell someone her feelings about this, even if it _was_ Malfoy. Over the past few days she was beginning to see he wasn't as horrible as Ron had always described him…

"Well, he told me I looked like I just got dumped," she said, barely above a whisper. "You know - bad hair, red eyes, sniffling all the time. I just don't get Harry. Why would he say something like that to me?"

As soon as she was done, Malfoy backed away; he was leaning in to hear what she was saying, she was saying it so quietly. Malfoy seemed to get it, however.

Ginny expected him to double-up laughing, or at least bellow out something like "HA HA HA! HOW INCREDIBLY PATHETIC!" but nothing of the sort happened. On the contrary, Draco looked a lot more serious than Ginny expected.

"You don't look like you just got dumped," Draco reassured her. Ginny stared at him, taken aback by his response.

"You look…" Draco trailed off, searching for a word. Ginny was still looking at him rather quizzically before he could stop himself from letting out what came next.

"…beautiful."


	3. The Animosity and the Alibis

Chapter Three: The Animosity And The Alibis

Ginny's mouth dropped dramatically, her eyes so wide they resembled white snitches. Draco Malfoy, out of all people, was the first boy to ever tell her that she was beautiful.

&&&&&&&&&&

Wait a second. Wait a bloody second. What did he just say?

Draco roughly blinked his eyes, praying that this was some kind of horrific dream. Did he... did he just... did he say...?

Realizing what he had just done, Draco started rambling. "Woah, Weasley, that came out all wrong!" he yelled frantically. "I didn't mean that, I don't know what I was saying, did you...? Did I -? What did -? Uh. Oh. Hm. Well, 'bye."

Carefully avoiding her eyes, Draco swept past her, walking with unusually long strides, not looking back. All Ginny did was stare at him all the way up to the castle, taking in what had just happened. Why he would say such a thing and then tell her that he didn't mean it...?

&&&&&&&&&&

It was nearly midnight. Ginny was sitting in the common room, her mind working at a rather fast pace. For some reason she just couldn't stop thinking about Malfoy... it was really very strange, the whole ordeal. In two days they had talked three times, that was definitely saying something. What was it about him? God, his eyes. They were so... blank. They were like dark, endless cave; empty and pitch black. Perhaps there was a treasure inside... perhaps...

Ginny looked down at the table in front of her, sighing deeply. Her homework lay in a huge pile in front of her, practically calling her name. Snape set an essay on them (the 2nd day of school, no less!) about the elements of gillyweed and its effects. Not to mention that their temporary Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, none other than Professor Tonks ("Please, Ginny," she had said the 1st day of school, "Don't call me professor. I'm only here for a little while. Besides, it makes me feel older than a basilisk."), assigned them with practicing complicated counterjinxes.

Wondering how to get the essay done (she could practice the counterjinxes another time), she suddenly had a harmless idea. Perhaps going to the library to borrow _Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean_ would prove to be helpful. She had no time whatsoever to do it tomorrow, so she might as well go now.

But it was well after midnight... how would she get there unseen?

Harry had an Invisibility Cloak... she could go into his dormitory and use it, just this once. He wouldn't mind...

Getting quickly up from the couch, she snuck up quietly into the 7th year boy's dormitories. She silently thanked the Hogwarts four for trusting girls more than boys.

When she opened the door, Neville's snoring reached her ears and she stifled a laugh. Now, where was Harry's bed? Ah, there it was. His curtains had been left open; she could see him in a rather strange sleeping position, mumbling something. She tiptoed to his bed and saw his trunk sticking out from under it.

Pulling it out from the bed as quietly as she could, she opened it with a _click_ that sounded throughout the dormitory. She looked around with a fearful face, praying that she had not woken anyone up, but the only movements were from Seamus, who merely twitched his leg, and Harry, who had turned to the other side of his bed. His and Ginny's faces were now a foot away from each other.

Letting out a low breath of relief, she began rummaging throughout his trunk. She snickered a little when she made contact with his underwear, but then saw the silvery material and made a snatch at it. Not even bothering to close the trunk, she stood up and took one last look at Harry, whose mumbling was now more pronounced. Ginny could only make out one tiny word:

"_Cho_."

Ginny's face turned into a scowl and now wondered whether she should keep the cloak for a few weeks and let him panic. The thought of him scrunching his hair in frustration made Ginny grin slightly.

Ron sniffed. Ginny remembered she was still in their dormitory, and, not wanting Ron to catch her stealing (no, no, it was borrowing) Harry's Invisibility Cloak, she dashed out of the door, down the stairs, and was back in the common room.

_That was a close one_, Ginny thought as she draped the cloak around her and opened the portrait into a very dark Hogwarts.

&&&&&&&&&&

Fifteen minutes later, Ginny, under the Invisibility Cloak, was walking through the Hogwarts corridors, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of movement, her ears alert for any fall of footsteps. She had to be nearly there... just a couple more corridors to go through...

Suddenly, as Ginny was passing several bodies of armor, there was a clang of metal to her left, where she saw a small corridor that lead to the Great Hall.

"OW!" a low voice hissed. Ginny gasped and took out her wand.

"Who's there?" she asked nervously, taking a few cautious steps. She took off the Invisibility Cloak slowly and hung it on her arm.

Someone was muttering to himself, apparently still hurting from the body of armor he had hit. The vague silhouette of a tall boy with broad shoulders was coming toward her.

"Malfoy?" she said incredulously. "Is that you?"

Out of the shadows, Draco Malfoy came strolling up to Ginny, who frowned and put away her wand.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. They just kept running into each other, it seemed. Ginny was getting quite bothered by it; it was actually kind of creepy. Draco laughed quietly, his face still barely recognizable in the dark.

"I should be asking you the same thing," he said pompously. When Ginny said nothing, he continued. "I was going to the kitchens to get a midnight snack. I didn't have time to eat dinner."

"What were you doing?" she said. "Worshipping the Dark Lord in an evil sanctuary?"

Ginny distinctly saw the smirk on Draco's smirk slip off in an instant.

"I didn't feel like it," he said, getting slightly louder. "Now, I would like to know what you're doing down here. Going to a H.P.F.C. meeting?" He then had a look of fake confusion. "I didn't know they held them this late," he said. His hand was resting on his chest, making him look like a concerned mother.

"What in the world is H.P.F.C?" said Ginny, her hands on her hips defiantly.

"Why, the Harry Potter Fan Club, of course," Draco told her. His eyes were now dancing with amusement. Neither of them saw that a furry something had just streaked by their legs and turned the corner.

"Harry Potter Fan Club? You've got to be joking me," Ginny chortled, but inside, she was fuming. Draco was talking about Harry _again_. All she wanted to do was give him a good poke in the forehead, just to see what his reaction was.

"What, ashamed that you're in love with him?" his malicious voice was now back to normal. "I would be too, you know. Especially since he says his own personal stalker looks like she hasn't showered in days -"

Ginny had had enough. The last few words set her off like nothing before; he knew that that had made her upset. Now he was just pushing her buttons. She walked up briskly to Draco and slapped him hard across the face, the sound of hand against cheek resounding throughout the long hallway. After she did, all of the anger that had mounted earlier that day seemed to leak out of her.

Draco staggered backward. His hand clasped his left cheek, where she had slapped it, and he glared at Ginny.

"You little -"

"Don't you _ever_ say I'm obsessed with that bloody bastard!" Ginny yelled, absolutely forgetting that they were both out of bed. Draco didn't remember it, either.

"Bloody bastard? You used to be in love with him!" shouted Draco, even louder than Ginny. They were closer now; they had taken steps toward each other, both of them somehow trying to seem taller than the other in an attempt to look more superior.

At Draco's words, Ginny laughed in a sinister way. _In love with Harry_?

"One day, Malfoy, you are _really_ going to get yourself beaten up by a _girl_. I can already see it happening."

"Ooh, I'm really scared."

"Yeah, well, you should be."

"I just said I am."

"I know you did."

"I know you know I did."

"Well fine."

"Well _fine._"

Draco grimaced in frustration, thinking of what else he could possibly say to make her just a little angrier, when, all of the sudden, making both Ginny and Draco jump, a croaky voice met their ears.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

It was Filch. Mrs. Norris was pacing in front of his ankles, looking pleased with herself. Filch's wide grin was twitching with obvious delight.

"Oo, students out of bed, I see," he said hoarsely. He eyed both of them with beady eyes, and Draco and Ginny looked warily at each other. "We'll go to Dumbledore for this one," he finally cackled, and he began leading them down a different corridor.

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny and Draco were sitting silently in two large chairs, which were in front of Dumbledore's desk. Dumbledore himself was looking out of the window, starring blankly at the Hogwarts grounds. He seemed to be in deep thought, though they couldn't even begin to wonder what he was thinking about. The two of them avoided looking at each other. Ginny's blood was boiling. She couldn't believe this was happening. All she wanted was a damn library book.

After about another minute of hearing nothing but the portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses mumbling in their sleep, Dumbledore went to his desk and sat down, looking at Ginny and Draco in an empty gaze. Ginny swallowed loudly, afraid of what was about to come.

"I would like to know the amusing explanations as to why the two of you are out of bed at this hour," Dumbledore said in a rather soft and soothing voice. Almost at once, Ginny and Draco broke out into alibis.

"It was all her fault, professor -"

"You see, I needed a book-"

"I was just going to get some food -"

"We sort of ran into each other on accident -"

"She should get detention, not me -"

"He started yelling, I couldn't stop him-"

Grinning slightly, Dumbledore put up a hand to silence them, and the two hushed almost immediately. "I believe," he said, observing them equally, "that both of you should be punished, seeing as both of you were out of bed, no matter who happened to be yelling or not."

Ginny and Draco did not move or say anything, but both seemed to be holding their breaths, waiting to hear their punishment. Ginny could see the famous twinkle flash in Dumbledore's eyes.

"Which is why you will both be serving detention together for two weeks."

Draco then sat up so fast that for a second, Ginny thought that he had been sitting on something extremely sharp.

"_What_?" he exclaimed loudly. He shot a death glare at Ginny, who looked just as stunned as he did.

"Please say you're joking," she said, her voice shaky. She had never gotten a detention before, and now she was getting two weeks' worth of them for something she didn't even start!

"I would like to, Miss Weasley, but clearly you and Mr. Malfoy have some expressing to do." said Dumbledore, looking back and forth between them.

"What do you mean, exactly?" said Ginny, dreading what he was going to assign them.

Dumbledore grinned a bit. "It is apparent that the two of you have extreme dislike for one another. I believe this kind of detention would be more useful than cleaning or being given extra work to do. This way, the problem we have dealt with tonight will not arise again in the future."

Draco sat back in his chair, sighing heavily.

"You will only be serving three detentions a week with one another," Dumbledore told them. "You will start next week, not this week, and the detentions will be served at 8:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. in the Charms classroom. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday."

"Yes, but what do we have to _do_?" asked Draco in a slight mutter. "Write down our feelings or something?"

"You will simply sit," said Dumbledore. "And talk."

Draco sighed once again. _Lines would have been better_, he thought.

Ginny, who was trying very hard not to stand up and start shouting, could feel the animosity practically running through her veins. This was all Malfoy's fault; Ginny was completely innocent. Dumbledore didn't even let her explain. All she wanted was the book for Snape's essay. She probably could have been almost finished by now if it weren't for the bloody Ferret.

"Now, I suggest you two get back to your dormitories for a good night's sleep," said Dumbledore softly. His eyes averted over to Ginny's, and he smiled. "Mr. Potter will be wanting his cloak back."

Ginny merely half-grinned back, feeling much too furious to even fake a smile. She got out of her chair and walked out of Dumbledore's office, Draco right beside her. Once they got into the corridor, and the gargoyle statue sprang back into place, Draco whipped his head toward her.

"If you hadn't have gotten out of bed to go to your stupid H.P.F.C meeting," he hissed, "None of this would have happened."

Ginny let out a frustrated groan and said, "I was going to the _library_, for Merlin's sake, Malfoy. I needed a book to help me with an essay that happens to be due tomorrow! And the professor who just _happened_ to assign it is Snape, who's bound to skin me when he knows I didn't do it!"

Draco merely chuckled. "You were going to the library. Right."

Ginny looked over at him with glowering eyes.

"Half of this is your fault too, you know," she told him, still walking. "If you hadn't have gotten up for a bloody 'midnight snack', then I would most likely be asleep in my dormitory by now."

Draco shook his head, smirking. "You could have easily skipped breakfast to go to the library. Why didn't you just wait until morning to do the essay?" he said.

Ginny stopped walking and turned to him. Draco did this as well, raising an eyebrow at her, wondering why she had suddenly halted in the middle of the hall.

"Why did you say I looked beautiful and then denied it?" she asked with an evil glimmer in her eye. Ginny distinctly heard Draco swallow, but then, to cover it up, he laughed at her.

"Haven't you ever heard of sarcasm?" he said, starting to walk again. Ginny started to walk as well, feeling breathless. She had been dying to get this out of Malfoy the second he had confronted her near the library.

"Yes," she said breathlessly, "but I know you weren't using it."

Draco swallowed again; Ginny knew she had caught him. Draco knew he couldn't avoid the subject forever... but his stubbornness caught up with him, and he looked over at her, smiling.

"Why, have a sixth sense?" he asked.

Ginny frowned, unimpressed by the way he was acting as if this was all a big joke. "Fine, you can pretend you were being sarcastic," she told him, rather smugly. "But believe me, Malfoy, you don't want to go there."

With that, Ginny turned and sped off to Gryffindor Tower, a wide grin spread across her face.


	4. Collisions

Chapter Four: Collisions

The morning of September 4th arrived with a cool breeze and plenty of sunshine. Draco was lying in his four-poster, completely unaware that the first Quidditch Match of the year would begin in a little less than an hour. He was snoring very loudly until Goyle strode over to Draco's bed and smacked him in the face without remorse.

"Wake up, Snoring Beauty," he said in a tired voice, smacking him again, this time even harder than before. With a jolt Draco awoke just in time to grab Goyle's wrist and glare at him with a look of pure venom.

"_Thanks_," he said through grinding teeth. "I'm awake."

Without a single expression on his pudgy face, Goyle toddled away and collapsed into his own bed; clearly he had only gotten up to wake up Draco and have a peaceful sleep-in.

Draco slowly got out of his bed, stretched, and looked out of his grimy window, staring out at the Quidditch Pitch. He had only just remembered that he would be facing Potter after breakfast, and silently grimaced at the thought. Having had lost every Quidditch match he ever played against Potter, he was in no mood to repeat it. After getting dressed, he walked alone to the Great Hall, noticing he was probably one of the last to arrive; everyone was already seated, eating toast and eggs and chatting excitedly about the upcoming match.

He spotted Blaise motioning for him to come sit down, so Draco walked over to the Slytherin table and took a seat next to him.

"'Morning," he said rather grumpily to Blaise. He promptly stuffed a muffin into his mouth and Blaise turned to talk to him.

"Draco," said Blaise with a serious look, "committing suicide by suffocation is so five minutes ago, so you might want to tone it down a bit. You're embarrassing me."

Narrowing his eyes at him with a kind of half-grin, Draco swallowed the rest of his muffin. "Ha, ha, ha," he said, his head bobbing from side to side dramatically. Then his eyes went back to normal and, laughing, he grabbed a few strips of bacon to put on his plate. "Well, actually…"- he reached for another muffin -"now that you mention it…"- he put the entire muffin inside his mouth -"thas nah suh abah idi."

Blaise chuckled, shaking his head, and turned back to his plate without another word. Draco swallowed the muffin with difficulty and, almost as if instinctively, looked over at the Gryffindor table to see whether Potter was feeling as ecstatic as he was about the match.

Unsurprisingly, he was talking with Weasley and Granger rather eagerly. It seemed to Draco that he knew there was no need for nervousness; Gryffindor would undoubtedly win. He looked more along the Gryffindor table and saw Ginny talking with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. She was looking rather bored with the conversation, and turned to her empty plate. She then looked up, and when she saw Draco's eyes on her, she gave him the most hateful glare he had ever seen. He hastily cast his eyes away from her and made sure not to look back.

He didn't know why, but for some reason when she glared at him, it made him so much more uncomfortable than when Potter did so, or anyone else for that matter. There was something about her anger that was so…

"I'm going back to the common room," Blaise said, getting up from the table. "Got to finish some homework before the match…."

"I'll go with you," said Draco almost immediately after Blaise had spoken, and he got up as well. He knew that Ginny was probably still looking at him, and walked a little faster than he normally would out of the Great Hall.

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny was furious with Malfoy. She had never gotten a detention in her years at Hogwarts, and this wasn't even intentional. If she had just gone to the library the next morning, for Merlin's sake, she would've been laughing at Seamus and Dean's jokes at that very moment, not giving Malfoy her livid eyes like she had been for the past fifteen minutes.

But no, Ginny had no reason to laugh at jokes. She was too angry with Malfoy to even notice that Neville was stuck to his seat with magical glue and already had a nice big hole in his trousers.

While everyone laughed around her, Ginny looked up to see that Malfoy was staring at her with a kind of glazed look, as if he was thinking about something. He didn't even look away until Ginny, who began to feel angry with him again, narrowed her eyes at him with loathing.

Draco averted his eyes and Ginny smirked in victory. _Serves him right_, she thought to herself. She watched him as he got up quickly from the table and left with Blaise, not even glancing back at her.

Putting her head on her hand, she wiggled her wand a bit and amusedly watched her fork do a kind of dance on the table before someone to her left said, "Ginny, are you all right?"

Ginny turned toward the voice and saw that Hermione was looking at her, her head tilted, her face rather concerned. Ginny sighed heavily; she thought to herself dolefully that Hermione was usually always the last one to hear gossip, so she would have to just tell her herself about what had happened with Malfoy.

Before she knew it, Ginny had launched into the whole story about Snape's essay, sneaking into the boys' dormitory for Harry's Invisibility Cloak ("You didn't!" said Hermione with a shocked expression on her face), and everything that followed.

By the end of her story, Ginny realized that she was breathing hard with fury. To her surprise, however, Hermione seemed to be even more enraged than she was.

"That's _awful_!" Hermione exclaimed once Ginny finished, a look of deep disgust on her face. She glanced over at the Slytherin Table, perhaps wanting to give Malfoy a good glare herself, but then sighed when she could not find him, and looked back over at Ginny rather seriously. "Well," Hermione said, patting her arm, "I suppose that now you will do your homework a bit earlier, hm?"

Ginny scowled at her.

&&&&&&&&&&

Once breakfast was over, every student in the Great Hall started walking down to the Quidditch Pitch for the first match of the year. Draco, feeling less than enthusiastic, made his way to the changing rooms with Blaise after leaving the common room. Silently, they changed into their uniforms. Draco picked up his broomstick, which he had placed in the changing rooms that morning, and he, being the Slytherin Quidditch Captain, called his team to order.

"Well," he said. "As you all surely know, Gryffindor is the enemy. I don't care what you have to do. Shove them, kick them, bite them, poke them in the eye; just let your imaginations run wild. The Cup is ours this year. Now let's go!"

Without a word, his team followed him to the pitch and they mounted their brooms. Then they kicked off from the ground and started to fly in circles around the stadium. The Gryffindor team made its way out a few minutes afterward, and Draco noticed that Harry was giving him the most sinister glare he had ever seen.

Wood came out onto the field. "Captains, shake hands," he told them both, and, jaw clenched, Draco gripped Harry's hand as hard as he could and let go.

The whistle blew, and they were off.

"Gryffindor takes control of the Quaffle!" shouted Dennis Creevey, the commentator. "And it's the lovely Ginny Weasley who's taking it to the Slytherin goal posts, oh, no! Zabini takes the Quaffle and is on the way to the Gryffindor goals, block it, Ron! – And Weasley saves it!"

The stadium cheered loudly and Draco sighed heavily, still looking for the Snitch.

"And it's to Euan Abercrombie, WATCH FOR THE BLUDG – okay, he's okay, whew. Abercrombie dodges chaser MacDougal, he's going to make it! C'mon, Euan… Bletchley let it pass! GRYFFINDOR SCORES!"

The Gryffindor supporters erupted into yells and cheers while the Slytherin side booed. Draco was getting frustrated. This happened every Quidditch Match he had ever played in; first the Gryffindor team scores, and then only a few minutes later Potter catches the Snitch in some spectacular dive.

"Gryffindor in the lead ten to nil, Slytherin in possession now, MacDougal is making his way to Weasley in the goal posts… DON'T LET HIM SCORE, RON! MacDougal avoids the Bludgers that are wonderfully hit in his direction –"

"Creevey, no taking sides!" Professor McGonagall yelled at him angrily.

"Sorry, Professor, I have nothing against the bloke at all. No, really. Now the Slytherin chaser and Gryffindor keeper are one-on-one! YOU CAN DO IT, RON! Ahh… Slytherin scores."

Much of the stadium booed loudly.

"Gryffindor takes the Quaffle. McDonald passes to Weasley. Weasley passes back to McDonald… Pritchard almost pummels her! Ah come on, Hooch, call that one! McDonald is almost to the goal posts… Pritchard _does_ pummel her this time!"

Graham Pritchard, another chaser, had knocked his arms into Natalie McDonald's face, whose nose began to bleed. Wood blew his whistle and granted Gryffindor a penalty shot, which Euan took. The Slytherin Keeper, Miles Bletchley, saved it and threw it back to Blaise.

Then - Draco saw it. The Snitch was floating a little to the right of Ginny's elbow. He quickly looked over at Potter; he was looking the other way. This was his chance. He urged his broom forward and he sped off, his right arm outstretched.

"Abercrombie takes the Quaffle from Zabini – GREAT SCOTT! MALFOY!"

The entire crowd gasped as they saw Draco speed across the pitch, a look of tenacity on his face. Harry's eyes widened and he sped off in Draco's direction. Ginny, realizing Draco was charging right at her, looked to the side and saw the Snitch. Quickly thinking, she positioned herself in front of the Snitch, her eyes tightened shut. Before Draco could swerve to the side –

A loud and sickening crunch sounded throughout the stadium and the two players, unconscious, slipped off their brooms…

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco groaned. He could hear faint chattering of students walking throughout the corridors nearby. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around; he was in the hospital wing. His left arm was in bandages and he had possibly the worst headache he had ever experienced. He tried sitting up, but his right leg suddenly felt a sharp pain and he lay back down again, breathing steadily.

"You're not in the state to do that, Malfoy," a girl said to him from his left.

Malfoy jumped and saw that Ginny was sitting on his bed with her schoolbag. She had bandages on both her arms and small cuts on her face. He glared at her.

"Oh really? And why are you not in a bed?" he asked.

"Harry caught me just after I fell off my broom…" Ginny told him. "…And the Snitch, too."

Draco's lips thinned. "Figures," he said, turning his head in anger. "The one chance I got when he was looking away and you had to screw it up. Thanks a lot, Weasley."

Ginny frowned. "Oh, don't be a crybaby. I was doing what I had to for my team," she said. "You would have done the same thing."

"Would I?"

She gave him a look and they were quiet for a little while. "So… do you know what happened to me?" Draco asked suddenly. "I mean, I fell off my broom, wouldn't I have, like, two hundred broken bones?"

"Well," Ginny said, sighing. "I wouldn't know firsthand, since I was unconscious. Dumbledore probably saved you. He did the same with Harry in your 3rd year, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Draco, his features perking. "Ha, that was hilarious."

Ginny raised an eyebrow and he cleared his throat. "Well, anyway," he said. "Why are you here? Feeling bad that you deliberately made me smash into you? Decided to pay a visit to your new favorite cripple?"

"Not at all," said Ginny, chuckling. "No, after I woke up, Dumbledore talked to me. He said that he would appreciate it if I visited you, partly because of last night, partly because of our… ahem… 'collision'."

Draco rolled his eyes. "That makes me feel so much better," he said sarcastically.

"Good," Ginny said. "That means I can leave." She smirked at him and grabbed her schoolbag, putting it over her shoulder rather slowly so as not to aggravate her wounds. She walked over to the door, opening it, but just before she stepped out into the hall, she turned to him.

"Hey, Malfoy," she said, her hand still on the doorknob.

He looked over at her, his eyes half-closed. "Yes, abuser?"

Ginny grinned.

"Feel better."

And with that, she was gone.

&&&&&&&&&&

_There she was. Ginny._

_She was standing in an empty field, her flaming red hair rippling in the harsh wind. She had a torn silk dress on, and she was barefoot._

_Draco stood there, not knowing what to do. He looked around him and had no idea where they were, and didn't exactly want to know either. There were trees everywhere, and they were standing in an open field. He turned to Ginny and saw that her face was completely expressionless, yet her eyes were narrowed with a certain fire. Suddenly, she started moving towards him._

_She was getting closer... and closer... her eyes began to change colors. At first it was a slow change; from red to orange, from orange to yellow, from yellow to green. But then the changing became faster and faster… her eyes were blurring in a whirlpool of color and then – they turned white._

_It started snowing. The temperature dropped in an instant. Draco began shuddering, but it looked as though Ginny could not feel it. Her face showed no emotion at all, just the same blank glare. She stopped right in front of Draco, their noses centimeters apart._

"_Her time will come," she said in a deep and misty voice, her eyes becoming brighter. Draco didn't know what to say. Should he even say anything? Would it do any good? Was this even real?_

"_And when it does, you must be prepared."_

_Draco's teeth were now chattering uncontrollably, and he felt as though he was going to drop down dead at any second. He thought longingly of his warm cloak back at Hogwarts… wherever that was._

"_You must make sacrifices for her protection."_

_Frightened was an understatement of what Draco was at that moment… he was terrified. _

"_If you do not," Ginny continued, but it seemed like she was not Ginny anymore… "She shall die in the dragon's hands."_

_At that, Draco hesitantly spoke. "What do I have to do?" he asked in a shrill voice, scared out of his mind._

_The woman (_was _it Ginny? She seemed so surreal) looked at him with a glimmer in her eyes, now both so bright that Draco had to shield his own._

"_You must endure many challenges to guard her from the peril, but so be it." The woman looked at him deeply, gazing into his soul. She smiled for the first time._

"_Take a chance, Draco," she said. "Do something right."_

_She vanished into thin air._

Draco sat up, panting. He looked around him. He was still in the hospital wing, and it was pitch black. The sharp pain in his leg was more pronounced than ever, and he grimaced at it. He fell back onto his pillow, closing his eyes and thinking.

The dream he had just had… what was that all about? Did it actually mean something, or was it just a dream? If it _did _mean something… then what did it mean? Weasley was in danger? What from? What did he have to do with it? Who said that he cared, anyway? But if she actually was…

Trying to think about it made his head hurt even worse, so Draco cleared his mind as much as he could and drifted off into another not-so-peaceful sleep.


	5. The First Detention

Chapter Five: The First Detention

Feeling slightly bad for putting Malfoy in the hospital wing, Ginny slowly started ignoring him, rather than glaring at him every chance she could. She thought that perhaps she was being a little melodramatic about their detentions and decided to take it easy on him. Even so, something odd was plaguing Ginny's mind ever since she had last seen him.

After a couple of days, Draco was released from the hospital wing, not a scratch on him. On Saturday, the day that Draco was let out, Ginny passed him on the way to Potions, and the look he gave her was indescribable. It was a look of shock. Surprise. Fear. What was that fear in his eyes? Was she scaring him? What could possibly scare Draco Malfoy?

Well, whatever it was, it sure scared Ginny herself. The panic in his eyes was so… intense. He had to be hiding something.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco couldn't forget the dream.

Being in the hospital wings for two nights with nothing to do, and no one to talk to, he thought about it for hours. The dream was weighing on his mind like a ball and chain, making him feel helpless and confused. What was its meaning? All he could figure out was that Ginny was in some kind of danger, and he had to protect her for some reason. But why? And how? And when exactly was this going to happen? And why did _he_ have to be the one doing it? And what if-

"Malfoy?"

The voice was behind him. Draco whipped around, and was surprised to see Ginny. The way she always knew where he was was really beginning to creep him out.

"It's time to go to our first detention," she told him, looking at her wristwatch. "It's nearly eight."

Draco swallowed. It was already Monday and he didn't even remember. "Right," he said, nodding. He felt a trickle of sweat run down his forehead. Ginny noticed this and looked at him, puzzled.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, taking a few steps toward him and suddenly stopping, realizing what she was doing.

Draco looked up. He had no idea what to do, or say. _Act like you normally would,_ said the voice in his head. Eurgh. Why did _he_ always have to pop in?

'How?' Draco questioned.

_Be malevolent._

'Okay, malevolent. And that's…?'

_Mean! Cruel! Nasty! I'm stuck with a moron..._

'At least I'm cute.'

Draco whipped out his traditional smirk and narrowed his eyes at her. "Let's just go, okay? I want to get this stupid thing over with," he told her with malice. Ginny scrunched her eyebrows together, clearly confused.

"All right…"

She started walking in the other direction towards the Charms classroom. Draco let out a sigh and began to follow.

Five minutes later, Ginny and Draco were standing in front of the Charms classroom with none other than Professor Snape.

"I'm not here to baby-sit you, only to make sure you both make it on time to your detention," he sneered at the two of them. "You may leave in an hour, and I _mean_ an hour. Leave before that time and believe me, I will know, and you will be punished."

Snape then turned and walked away, leaving the two of them to enter the classroom. Neither of them moved. Draco suddenly held his arm out.

"Ladies first," he said, eyeing her carefully. Ginny slowly stepped inside, and Draco closed the door behind them. They both sat down in desks near each other and looked at one another awkwardly, trying to find something to talk about. It wasn't so easy, seeing as they had hated each other for five years.

"So…" said Ginny, not knowing how to start off with a good topic. Draco, however, surprisingly came up with something in a fleeting instant.

"Have you gotten over that bloody Potter yet?" he asked snobbishly.

"_Why do you keep bringing him up_?" she said in a frustrated voice, getting up from her chair. She started walking around, biting her nails. It was as if he was obsessed with asking her about Harry. She couldn't even avoid it anymore.

Draco looked up at her, clearly taken aback by her sudden flare-up. "I was just trying to cover a topic, Weasley," he said with a small laugh. "Do you always take things so damn literally?"

Ginny scowled. She would have loved to just slap that face of his again and again… over and over until it was a dark violet. "So you think Harry's a topic now, do you?" she said loudly, stopping in her tracks and looking him in the eye. "What ever made you think I liked him in the first place?"

Draco laughed coldly, shifting in his chair.

"Let's see," he said, stroking his chin as if he were thinking deeply about something. "Hm… well… THE WHOLE SCHOOL KNOWS ABOUT IT!" he shouted. He waved his arms around dramatically.

Ginny was silent. She was thinking about what Draco had just said. Truthfully, the whole school _did_ know that she liked Harry before, but evidently had not learned that she was well over him.

"Then the whole school is wrong!" she yelled. "For God's sake, Malfoy, don't you ever use your head? Do you think _everything_ is true?"

"No, but it's obvious that you do!" Draco exclaimed. He was now out of his chair as well. Ginny stared at him, confused.

"What do you mean?" she said.

"I mean exactly what I said!" said Draco. He stepped closer to her. "You think everything is true. All those stories, all the tales about his tragic heroism and brains. You think Potter is a god. You view him as some saint, some pure being that you're not worthy of. All those goddamn stories, they may be true, but there was no heroism involved."

Ginny had no idea what he was talking about. "Of course there was heroism involved, if there wasn't then he would have never done those things! He never would have gotten the Sorcerer's Stone, or saved me in my 1st year –"

"Ah, but see, that's where you're mistaken," Draco said angrily. "You think he saved you because of 'moral fiber' or something like that? It's rubbish. Anyone can tell that all he cares about is the glory, the fame. He didn't care about saving your life, all he cared about was getting the goddamn limelight and you know it!"

Ginny's lip trembled.

"That's not true," she said. "He's not like that."

"Oh, so now you're sticking up for him?"

"Shutup!" Ginny yelled. "You don't know anything!"

Draco laughed. "I know one thing's for sure. You're fanatical about that fucking scarhead. Admit it. We wouldn't be arguing if you weren't."

Ginny stared at him, not believing what he had just said. "_Fanatical_?" she said, only a few notches above a whisper. "You think I'm _fanatical_ about him?"

There was silence.

"Well, what about you, Mister Death Eater?" Ginny continued, getting louder. "What about how -"

"How what, Weasley?" Draco interrupted her. "How I'm supposedly _fanatical_ about my father planning out my entire life? _Fanatical_ about the Dark Lord? _Fanatical_ about becoming a Death Eater?"

Ginny stayed quiet, staring at Draco with perplexity in her eyes. Where had this outburst come from? Malfoy had never talked about his life in such a manner.

"God, do you think that I actually _like_ the idea that I'm going to be this evildoer who chases around pathetic little wizards, hoping that the Dark Lord will rise to power?" he spat.

Finally deciding to speak up, Ginny opened her mouth, but found that she didn't know what to say.

"I – I didn't think –"

"No, Weasley, you never think," Draco hissed at her, shutting her up. "You have no idea what it's like to be me. How would you feel, knowing that all of your mates would be out getting married and making babies and being happy while I'm out in the mountains somewhere being tortured to kill people I don't even know?"

Ginny swallowed and looked angrily at Draco, finally reaching the end of her thread. She had had enough of his complaining.

"_I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK_!" she practically screamed, making Draco flinch. Her entire body was trembling. "Stop bitching and moaning about your perfect life! You have it made, you have all the money in the world –"

"Don't talk about what you don't know!" Draco shouted, but Ginny kept going.

"You can have any girl you want, you can have anything, you're set for life," she said. "So what the fuck are you complaining about, hm?"

Draco turned away, sitting down on top of a desk and staring at the wall. She would never understand. She would never know.

There was an odd silence after that. Both of them stood there without a sound, Ginny still slightly shaking. She had never shouted at anyone in such a way, not anyone. Suddenly, Malfoy stood back up straight and faced her. His face was full of emotion. He looked angry, and upset, and confused. Looking into Malfoy's hurt eyes she suddenly felt horrible about what she had said.

"I'm sorry," Ginny said, looking down. "I shouldn't have said any of that. I don't know anything about you."

Draco sighed. He didn't say anything.

"I shouldn't have assumed," she continued. "And I mean, your father may be some kind of dragon, but that doesn't mean he can make your choices for you. You shouldn't have to -"

Draco whipped his head in her direction, his eyes wide and full of the same fear he had looked at her with after his dream.

"What did you just say?" he asked in a soft and shaky voice.

"That you father shouldn't have to…"

Ginny was at a complete loss for words now. The fear in Draco's eyes was haunting, what was making him look at her like that? Was it something she said? Was she looking positively horrible?

"What's wrong?" she asked, her eyebrows knitted in concern.

"N-nothing," Draco stuttered. Suddenly he quickly turned to leave the room, but Ginny stopped him by the shoulder. Draco didn't take another step. He turned toward her.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked again, her voice anxious.

"I have to go," Draco told her. "You wouldn't understand."

"Well maybe I could if you just-"

"No," he interrupted. There was an eerie ringing throughout the room. "I have to go. Goodbye."

Draco walked out of the room without another word.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco didn't care if the hour was up or not. He was leaving, and that was that. He couldn't put up with talking to Ginny anymore. It wasn't because he didn't want to; she was beginning to scare him. She was saying everything that was in his dream, everything exactly how the Ginny in his dream said it (if it _was_ Ginny, anyway). And not only that, but she was saying everything that nobody dared ever say to him, everything that Draco had never wanted to hear… everything that was true about him.

He rushed to his common room and swept into his dormitory, not even bothering to change into his pajamas before drowning himself in a pool of bed sheets.

Everything was becoming so… real.


	6. Innocent Intrusions

Chapter Six: Innocent Intrusions

A soft and quiet wind rattled Ginny's window, a few spare branches scratching the glass.

Ginny turned to the side, groaning. She opened her eyes furiously and looked at her alarm clock on her nightstand.

It was 7:30 A.M.

Ginny smacked her lips and yawned, realizing that she could've had a lot more time to sleep if the stupid wind hadn't woken her up.

_Well,_ Ginny thought to herself, _there's no reason not to do something productive._

Ginny opened her four-poster bed curtains and looked around at all of the other 6th year girls; every one of them was asleep, a few snoring now and then.

Laughing quietly, Ginny got up from her bed and stretched her arms as far as they would go. She rubbed her stomach, feeling… empty.

That night had not gone well at all, and as far as Ginny knew, Draco was scared of something she didn't know about.

What was he hiding from her?

Ginny knew he was hiding something, something important. She needed to know desperately.

But whom could she get advice from? One of her brothers? Wait…

Fred.

Ginny went to her schoolbag and got out a piece of parchment, quill, and inkbottle. She rushed downstairs to the common room and sat all of her things down on one of the tables.

Ginny picked up the quill, dipped it in the inkbottle, and started writing hastily onto the parchment. She wrote the letter so quickly that when she was finished, several inkblots were splattered all around.

_Fred,_

_It's your dear sister Ginny. I'm in a bit of a fix, and if you can help, it would be much appreciated. It's a pretty long story, but Malfoy and I have to spend three detentions together this week! Please don't make me explain; I am in haste. Our first detention was last night, and things did not go well. Lately, whenever Malfoy sees me, there is a fear in his eyes I can't put in plain words. Now I know I didn't suddenly grow humongous muscles or another foot, and I know YOU know these kinds of things. Please help me; I do not know how to deal with him._

_Love,_

_Ginny_

Ginny read through it, finding that nothing was wrong. She smiled, sprinted upstairs, put on her shoes and cloak, and hurried back downstairs. She opened the portrait hole and walked out, not even stopping to hear the Fat Lady's 20-minute lecture about 'waking up sleeping people'.

&&&&&&&&&&

_Granger,_

No, that stupid bushy-haired nitwit would get angry.

Draco crumpled up the parchment and threw it into the trash bin.

_Hermione,_

This was way too strange. Draco had never called Granger… _Hermione_. However, Draco kept on with his letter.

_Hermione,_

I am in desperate need of your help. I had a dream the other day, and 

"No, no, no!" Draco yelled in a whisper, ripping the parchment in half and throwing it in front of him. He sighed in aggravation.

_Hermione,_

_I am in desperate need of your help. Ginny is in danger. Do not ask me how I know this. I have… sources. What I need you to do is protect her wherever she is. If she goes to the bathroom, say you're brewing up some secret potion and you need a place to hide it. If she goes to the library, pretend you want to study. You know… act like yourself. Just protect her as much as you can. _

_Draco Malfoy_

Ah, good enough.

Draco put the letter into an envelope and put 'Hermione Granger' on it with his quill. He got up and walked out of the common room, noticing that the dungeons were more chilly than usual.

For what seemed to be at least half an hour, Draco walked and walked, his destiny the Owlery. He needed to get the letter to Hermione by the time she woke up, because he never knew when Ginny was going to be… whatever the woman told him.

At last, Draco made his way into the smelly Owlery, looking upon over a hundred sleeping owls, most of them eating their late dinner.

Draco searched for his own eagle owl, but he was not there. Draco knew because usually his owl would fly down on his shoulder, and at that moment, his shoulder held no weight.

He shrugged and went to an owl that was awake and not eating. Draco didn't care whose it was, he just needed to get his letter to the recipient (which was Hermione).

Draco put out his arm for the owl to perch on, but the owl did not budge. Its ocher eyes glared at him fiercely, almost daring him to come nearer.

After awhile, Draco got frustrated.

"Come here, you bloody bird!" he yelled furiously, and his arms reached quickly at it.

But before Draco even touched the owl, a hand grabbed his wrist, stopping his arm from stretching any further. "Don't even think about touching my owl, Draco Malfoy," said Ginny angrily, letting go of Draco's wrist forcefully. He looked at her, utterly surprised.

"What the hell are you doing here this early in the morning?" he asked, forgetting that he was there as well.

"Me? What about you?" said Ginny, slightly laughing.

Ginny saw Draco gulp.

"I don't think that's any of your business," he told her quietly, looking down at the hay-strewn floor.

Ginny stared at him. "Fine," she said. She held out her left arm and made a tutting noise. "Come, Belle," murmured Ginny in a rather soothing voice, and the owl flew up to Ginny's arm to sit on. Ginny turned to Draco, looking back and forth at Belle and him. "You must be gentle so they will be gentle," she told him, stroking the owl.

Draco cleared his throat.

He decided not to reply to Ginny, and he moved on to another owl.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco knew Ginny was smarter than him. She got him every time. Why, though? Ever since the dream, he had been weak towards him, not the same Draco. The old Draco would've taken the owl from Ginny just so he could send Granger the letter.

But then again, the old Draco wouldn't have even be sending a letter to stupid Granger, so he would be in bed, and everything would be just fine.

The dream was the thing that made everything change. He didn't know what to do about it anymore. It just kept nagging at his brain, making him want to scream.

Draco let the barn owl fly away into the morning sky, the letter already attached to its thin leg, the wind making it ripple in a harsh motion.

He turned to Ginny, who was staring off into the distance.

"Listen," he said in a low voice. Ginny looked at him. "We should get back to the c-castle."

She didn't move, though. She was still looking at Draco, but rather oddly, as though she were trying to make up her mind about something.

"So…" Draco trailed off, his eyebrows raised. "Let's go."

Ginny suddenly shook herself out of her stupor and looked surprised. "Erm… should we go to breakfast? Dumbledore won't mind if we go early, will he?" she said, and she started walking out of the Owlery.

Draco just stood there, confusedly watching her walk away. What was with that girl?

Sensing that Draco wasn't following her, Ginny turned around and put her hands on her hips. "Well are you coming or not?"

Draco laughed at the ground and then looked up at her. "You look so stupid when you put your hands on your hips," he told her. "Kind of like Pansy Parkinson."

Ginny giggled silently and shook her head, turning back around to leave the Owlery.

Little did either of them know that somebody was watching them… somebody who didn't quite like what she was seeing.


	7. Rumors And An Unexpected Kiss

Chapter Seven: Rumors And An Unexpected Kiss

As Ginny entered the Great Hall, she noticed immediately that everybody's head had swiveled right in her direction. And not only that, but the looks they were giving her were very strange. There were looks of anger, astonishment, and confusion. Some people were even sporting grins and nudging their friends. Whispers flew from table to table, Ginny not knowing what they were talking about. She took a few shaky steps forward, and it seemed that the Great Hall buzz got even louder than before.

Suddenly, Draco came sweeping over to her from the Slytherin table, looking very angry indeed. Ginny did not notice this, though, and she smiled.

"Do you have any idea why everyone's looking at me like I have three legs?" she asked him nervously.

Draco scowled at her. "Don't pretend to act innocent, Weasley, I know you told everyone that stupid rumor," he muttered, his eyes narrowed.

"What in God's name are you talking about?" she said, crossing her arms in a snotty way.

"Nothing you don't know about," Draco said coldly, and he walked off, his black robes billowing behind him like a humongous shadow. Ginny unfolded her arms, sighed heavily, and rolled her eyes.

"Wonderful," she whispered to herself. She looked around the Great Hall and realized that more than half the room was still staring at her, so instead of sitting down for breakfast she turned around and started heading back to Gryffindor Tower.

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny was sitting on a crimson couch in the Gryffindor common room, thinking about everything that had happened that day. She was the only one there at the time, which she actually felt grateful for. All she needed now was for someone to start making her even more confused than she already was.

It was 6:30 P.M., and the day had not gone well for Ginny.

Right after she left her first class, people started staring and whispering to each other, just like they had done in the Great Hall. A few guys had given her thumbs up as they passed her or winked at her. At first she didn't mind all that much, but now she was totally sick of it. She had to know what had been going around about her.

When her last class ended, Ginny made her way back to the common room and found Hermione wrapped in a blanket in a chair, reading. She thought that Hermione would be perfect to talk to – understanding. She sat on the arm of the chair beside her, and Hermione looked up.

"Oh, hello, Ginny," she said, closing her book, called The Complete Guide For Voodoo. Ginny looked at the book with a blank expression.

"Uh - Hermione - what's that for?" she asked uncertainly.

Hermione looked down at the cover and giggled. "It's just for Defense Against The Dark Arts. 7th years are studying how to defend themselves against, well - voodoo."

Ginny exhaled.

"Anyway, what do you need?" she asked, putting the book down next to her.

"Hermione, have you been hearing - rumors?" Ginny said to her, sitting down.

Hermione looked almost fearful. She bit her lip and looked around, trying to find something or someone to help her out.

"Come on, you can tell me the truth," said Ginny, begging her to talk. She had to know what everyone had been saying about her, it was driving her mad.

"Promise not to get angry?" Hermione asked her, still biting down on her lip, her eyebrows nearly all the way up to her hairline.

"YES! Just _tell_ me, for Christ's sake!" Ginny shouted, starting to get impatient. "Did you really expect me to leave you alone about this now that I've already asked you?"

"Okay, okay!" Hermione shouted back, almost laughing at how Ginny was acting. Suddenly she got serious again. "Well, somebody told some people - which was _not_ me, I swear - that… well… that you and Malfoy were _shagging_ in the Owlery this morning."

Ginny nearly exploded. Her eyes got very wide and her jaw hung. "_WHAT_?" she roared, shooting up from the couch like she couldn't bear to be sitting anymore. "That is so not true! Who said that?"

She put her hand on her forehead, trying to think of whom she saw while going to the Owlery. She hadn't seen anyone at all except for Draco.

"I knew it wasn't _true_, of course, I was _completely_ shocked that somebody would actually say something as _absurd_ as that!" Hermione told her, breathing heavily and somehow choking out an awkward laugh.

Ginny stared at her. "Who did you hear say that?" she asked, tapping her foot.

Once again, Hermione bit her lip.

"_Who_?" she repeated.

"The new girl," Hermione told her quickly, and she closed her eyes, thinking that Ginny would scream. However, the scream did not come. She didn't say a word. The shock of this simple sentence was enough to stop all train of thought.

"Blank du Grease or whatever that stupid girl's name is?" said Ginny, looking confused.

"Blanc du Gris," Hermione corrected, and Ginny gave her a dirty look. She couldn't believe it. Her and the French girl had never even acknowledged each other, and now she was spreading rumors about her? It just didn't make any sense, it didn't seem right…

"Look, Ginny, I personally think that you shouldn't take this the wrong way," said Hermione. "Perhaps she had you confused with somebody else -"

"She didn't get me confused, Hermione," Ginny said, putting her hand up to stop her from going on any further. "She's jealous."

Hermione was silent. "Well what _were_ you and Malfoy doing in the Owlery?" she asked after a moment.

"We were just talking, nothing other than that. And I thought you said you didn't believe it?" Ginny said, putting her hands on her hips and arching an eyebrow.

"Just asking," said Hermione, smiling. She then picked her book back up and continued reading.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco couldn't believe that Ginny did this to him.

What was it for, anyway? Did she _fancy_ him…?

Lovely.

Draco was furious in the freezing Slytherin common room, sitting on a couch with his head in his hands. Suddenly, Crabbe and Goyle came into the room, talking and laughing. Draco turned his head and Crabbe chuckled, clearly not noticing the look of pure venom that Draco was giving him at the moment.

"Well, well, well…" he started to say, but Draco interrupted him in a snap. "If it isn't the Weasel-lover."

Draco was actually shaking. He almost felt like cursing both of them into oblivion, but now was not the time. He did not feel like fighting. Instead, he got up haughtily and stomped out of the common room trying not to hear Crabbe and Goyle chuckling behind him.

'This is unbelievable,' Draco thought bitterly as he strode throughout the Hogwarts corridors. 'Who does she think she is, telling that stupid rumor to everyone?'

He walked outside to a small garden where he sat down on a stone bench. He looked out to the Quidditch Pitch and thought about the first match of the season, how Ginny had stopped him from getting the Snitch. This thought did nothing but anger him even more, and Draco scowled to himself. Then he remembered how she visited him in the hospital wing, and the dream… he hadn't thought about the dream in a long time…

"What is zis?"

Draco turned to his right and saw the new transfer student standing right in front of him. She was looking at him with a slight smile on her face, pretending not to notice the expression of anger on his.

"A complete moron," he answered her, looking down at his feet.

"Oh, do not say zat! I 'ear you answer many questions in class… you actually strike me as ze smart one," she said with a soft voice, sitting down next to him. He could almost feel cold air coming off of her, like she was a cube of ice.

"Yeah, well… if I wasn't such a moron, then why do people talk about me and point at me and -"

"Because you are so much better zan zem," she said, turning his face to her. "Zey are obviously jealous of your good looks."

Draco looked at her. She was so amazingly gorgeous; she looked even better up close than she did far away. It was as if she was begging him to kiss her. Wait a minute, why was she making him face her in the first place? What was she about to do?

All of the sudden, Draco got his answer. Blanc leaned in and kissed Draco tenderly on the lips. Her lips were so… indescribable. It was so perfect, so blissful… his life vanished completely; it was like he was in a completely different world. This was love. This was wonderful!

The kiss grew longer. Blanc kept trying to make it stronger and more passionate, but Draco held back, wondering why he was even doing this in the first place. After thinking about this, Draco pulled his lips away, feeling awkward all of the sudden. He leaned back and looked at her, taking her hands off his face.

"Why did you do that?" he asked her quietly.

Blanc smiled almost devilishly. "I like you, Draco. You are not like most uzzer boys around here. You are --- rich, charming, and definitely handsome," she told him.

Almost instantly, Draco frowned at her and stood up. "So that's all you think I am? Tons of galleons and a pretty face?" he spat at her, getting angry again.

"I did not mean it zat way!" cried Blanc. Her eyes had the most pleading look Draco had ever seen, yet there was something about Blanc that didn't feel right…

"Well it certainly seemed like it," he told her with almost gritted teeth. He walked away and back into the castle, leaving Blanc outside on the bench.

"_AYEZ UN TEMPS MERVEILLEUX AVEC VOTRE GINNY PATHÉTIQUE_!" she bellowed sulkily, putting her face in her hands and sobbing loudly.

Draco just laughed.


	8. Confrontation

Chapter Eight: Confrontation

As Ginny sat in the Great Hall on Wednesday morning, eating her breakfast at the Gryffindor table, she couldn't help but notice that at the other side of the Great Hall at the Slytherin Table, Draco was looking very odd indeed.

He was usually either chatting with Blaise Zabini or showing off something he got from his mother and father back at home, but today was different. Draco was looking pale and was playing carelessly with his fork instead of eating his food.

Ginny was wondering what was wrong with him, and that maybe the stupid rumors Blanc had spread caused him to be emotionally stressed or something. No, that couldn't be it. Draco Malfoy, _emotionally stressed_? It had to be something else.

Right when Ginny was about to take another bite of her eggs, the Great Hall doors opened. She turned and looked to see who it was, and wasn't surprised to see Harry and Cho, hand in hand, talking animatedly.

Over the first week, Ginny always saw Harry and Cho together, and Harry was usually carrying her book bag. Yes, what a _gentleman_. Whenever Ginny saw them, she had to turn away. It wasn't that she was jealous; she simply couldn't stomach the sight of them together. It was nauseating having to watch Harry kiss her neck and hear her call him 'Honeycakes' every time she happened to pass by the inseparable couple.

Ginny scowled to herself and went back to her breakfast, feeling that today was not the day she wanted to get angry. Harry and Cho disconnected, and began walking over to where Ginny was sitting. _Oh God_, she thought.

Ginny turned back to the table and pretended not to notice that Harry was standing right behind her. She picked her fork up, preparing to put more eggs into her mouth, but her moment of innocent unknowing was ruined when Harry suddenly spoke.

"Hey," he said, making Ginny drop her fork with a clatter. She did not respond.

"Mind if I sit next to you?" he asked, not even waiting for an answer before taking the empty spot next to her.

Ginny laughed bitterly, shaking her head. "Well, yes, I do, but I guess it doesn't matter now, does it?" she said loutishly, looking at him with disdain. She picked up her fork again and started eating, hoping that maybe Harry would take a hint and instead decide to sit next to Ron and Hermione.

"Am I allowed to talk to you?"

"No."

Plain and simple. Ginny didn't want to go into having a conversation with Harry at the moment, especially when she was feeling particularly murderous against him.

"You have to talk to me someday," he told her, looking down at his hands.

"And why should I, Harry?" she asked, turning to him with a fake grin plastered on her face. "Because we're such good friends and we talk all the time?"

Harry looked at her with his eyebrows pinned together.

"Why are you acting so rude to me lately? What did I ever do to offend you so much? I mean, you're not even talking to Ron or Hermione, and I'm hearing all these things which I know aren't true -"

"And how do you know if they're true or not?" Ginny interrupted, looking at Harry with an arched eyebrow. "How well do you know me anyway, Harry? What, are we _buddies_ now?"

Harry frowned.

"Ginny, you know what I mean," he said tonelessly.

"Actually, Harry, I don't. Now, why don't you go waste someone else's time?" she said to him.

With that, Ginny took one more bite of her eggs and started walking out of the Great Hall. What she didn't know was that Harry got up too and was following her, his strides even longer than her own.

"Ginny, stop!" Harry yelled, and he took her shoulder and pinned her to the wall.

"Get off of me!" exclaimed Ginny, trying to push Harry away. Harry was too strong though, and he held her back with his arm.

"Listen, I want - stay _still_! - I want you to talk to me, Ginny. Please, come on. What's holding you back?" he said.

"Your arm!" Ginny shouted, still fighting to get away. Harry rolled his eyes, but still didn't remove his arm.

"Come _on_, all I want to know is what's wrong!" he bellowed so loudly that Ginny snapped her eyes shut. Suddenly, she fell limp, and Harry eased his arm away from her. They both looked at each other hopelessly, neither of them knowing what to say.

"What makes you think I have a problem, anyway?" said Ginny angrily. "You can't help. You wouldn't even _know_ if I didn't explain the story, which is way too long, so just leave me alone!" She tried to walk away, but Harry grabbed her arm again.

"All I want to know is why you won't talk to me!" Harry said.

"You never talk to me! What makes you think I'd want to talk to you now?" Ginny yelled at him furiously, pulling her arm away but staying where she was.

Harry sighed, obviously trying to think.

"I don't know. Maybe I _care_, unlike you who just blames the whole world for everything. To tell you the truth, I don't even know what I'm trying to do. Maybe it's like Cho said -"

"Who cares about what Cho said?" Ginny interjected. "I don't even know what you see in that girl. She's a pathetic, low-life -"

"Don't you talk about my girlfriend in that way!" Harry roared, even louder than usual. Ginny laughed resentfully.

"Yes, Cho is all the world to you. Everyone bow down to Cho Chang, queen of all that lives."

"What do you have against Cho, anyway? Are you _jealous_ or something?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowed.

"No! I _told_ you, Cho is nothing to me! She's _nothing_, alright?" Ginny was getting sick of talking about Cho. She couldn't even bear thinking about her. "Why don't you get that through your button-sized brain?"

"Well it certainly seems like you're jealous. You have no reason to hate her, the two of you have never even spoken," said Harry. "Besides, don't you have anybody else you like?"

"What do you mean, 'anybody _else_'?" Ginny said heatedly, looking at Harry with dark eyes, unlike her light brown ones.

"Come on, Ginny, I know you've liked me for years," muttered Harry. "It's not too hard to notice. You used to always follow me around; you never left me alone."

"Hey, why don't you look at what you just said?" Ginny whispered sarcastically, her head to one side. Suddenly she started shouting. "I _USED_ TO! PAST TENSE! DIDN'T YOU EVER TAKE ENGLISH, YOU MORON?"

"Calm down, Gin, I bet everyone in the Great Hall heard that -"

"You're not licensed to call me Gin! Only Ron can, and I don't think you're him, so if you'll excuse me, I'll be going now!"

Ginny turned on her heel and began walking away again, this time even faster than before. There was no need for them to keep arguing, it would just make things worse. However, not even five seconds after finishing her sentence, Harry had already caught up to her and had jumped in front of her, not letting her take another step.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong with you!" he said shrilly.

"Do you want me to see a therapist or something?" said Ginny, rolling her eyes. She put her hands on her hips. "Honestly, Harry, you expect me to come running to you every time you think I have a problem? Even if I had one, so what? It's none of your business anyway! Now _move_!"

Harry didn't move. Ginny sighed heavily, thinking of what to do next.

"Don't make me do something drastic, Harry, you wouldn't want that. Believe me, Ron has had experience," she told him.

"If I can take on Voldemort, I can certainly take on you. Go ahead; try me, Ginny," Harry said stupidly, thinking that she was going to use magic on him.

"Okay," said Ginny. And, leaving her wand in her pocket, before Harry could move, she went up to him and kicked him in the groin.

Almost immediately, Harry yelped in agony and fell to the ground, groaning. Ginny smiled at him and looked down at him. "Well… You-Know-Who can't be worse than that, can he?" she told him, giggling quietly.

"G-ginnnnnnyy!!!" Harry cried.

"Goodbye," said Ginny, and she walked off, still laughing uncontrollably. Served him right, the stupid git.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco was sitting in the Great Hall when he heard a loud and girlish scream in the distance. He looked around, wondering where it came from, noticing that a few others sitting in the Great Hall were looking around in surprise, too.

"What was that?" he asked a girl who was sitting beside him. She looked at him with droopy eyes.

"How the hell should I know?" she said.

Draco frowned at her and got up from the Slytherin table, only to find that Blanc was standing right in front of him. He nearly jumped; this girl was seriously frightening him. She always seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"What do _you_ want?" he asked coldly.

"I need to talk to you. Let's go outside," she said.

Draco reluctantly followed Blanc outside and the two of them sat down on a bench that was similar to the one they had sat on when they had kissed. _She had better make this quick_, Draco thought. His first class was going to start in about fifteen minutes and he still needed to get his things.

"Listen, I know zat last night did not go well, but…"

"But what? Do you expect me to fall for you or something?" Draco said. "Okay listen, you're - pretty and all, but one thing you don't do is kiss a guy and then tell him that you're into his looks and his money." He pursed his lips and shook his head. "Big no-no."

Blanc looked confused. "I still do not understand why you got so upset… I sought I was giving you a com-plee-ment…"

"That's not the way it works," he said. "I'm sorry, but I just don't know you well enough to like you that way. I mean, we've never even really talked – wait, what was your name again?"

Blanc glared at him, and all of the sudden her eyes turned literally red.

"It's Blanc," she muttered in fury.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" Draco asked confusedly. Blanc's eyes turned back to sea green, and she tucked a strand of her radiant brown hair behind one of her ears.

" I must go now," she said, and Draco saw tears falling down from her face. Blanc got up hurriedly and ran off, crying hysterically into her hands.

Draco had no idea what had just happened. He saw her eyes turn _red_, that definitely wasn't normal. He was very curious about that girl indeed…


	9. An Interesting Detention

Chapter Nine: An Interesting Detention

"You won't believe what just happened!" Hermione cried, bursting through the portrait hole. Ginny looked up from her Defense Against the Dark Arts homework to see a very red Hermione rushing in her direction. Lavender and Parvati were sitting on the other side of the room, whispering nonstop, and a group of Gryffindor 3rd years in the corner were having a group study.

They all looked up at Hermione, waiting to hear what she had to say. Hermione, however, waved them off to tell them it wasn't information they needed to know, and they got back to what they were doing.

"What is it?" Ginny asked, putting her quill down.

"I passed by Harry in the hall, and he was on the ground clutching his… package!" whispered Hermione. Even though she looked serious, you could tell that any second she was going to burst out laughing.

When Hermione said this, Ginny had to hide her smile.

"I helped him up and when I asked what had happened, he didn't say a thing, he just ran to the boys' bathroom!" exclaimed Hermione.

"I believe it was I who did that to him," Ginny told her, getting back to her homework as though this was nothing out of the ordinary.

Hermione stared at her, completely shocked.

"_Why_?" she asked loudly. She sat down next to Ginny, thinking that maybe this would help get something out of her.

"He was pressuring me to talk to him and he wouldn't go away, that's why. Now please let me finish my homework, I'd rather not talk about this," she said simply.

Hermione frowned.

"Ginny, you shouldn't have done that that. You may get in trouble, you know," she told her.

Ginny laughed. "I have a detention tonight anyway," she said. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she hastily looked at her watch.

"It's already 7:55! Look, Hermione, love to chat, but got to run! Bye!"

Ginny then picked up all of her books and homework and hurried out of the common room. She dashed down each corridor and skid into the Charms classroom.

&&&&&&&&&&

"You're six minutes late," Draco told her, smiling. "I'm impressed."

Ginny rolled her eyes and set her homework on a desk, sitting down with a PLOP! She picked up a quill and resumed her work.

"What are you doing?" asked Draco, getting up and looking down on her. Ginny's auburn hair glimmered in the light, catching Draco's attention.

"Homework. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to finish it or Tonks will give me yet another detention," she said, becoming irritated.

"Well what am I supposed to do? Sit and wait for the detention to be over?" he asked, still standing behind her. Ginny sighed.

"You didn't mind leaving last time, did you? Why don't you just leave again?" she said. "Go on, no one will catch you, Mister Sneaky."

Draco laughed. Then he thought about the last detention, and he closed his eyes. He left for a good enough reason, and if Ginny didn't need to know why, he wouldn't tell her. Instead, he changed it to a different subject.

Draco sat down next to Ginny so he could see her face.

"Er… Ginny?" he asked nervously. "Has Granger - I mean Hermione - has she been… following you lately?"

Ginny looked at him with a funny face, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"No…" she trailed off. "Why, is she a stalker?"

_Granger!_ Draco thought. It was either she didn't get the letter or she refused. Which wasn't all that unusual... the letter was from someone she hates, he couldn't expect her to think he was being serious.

"Cat got your tongue?" asked Ginny when he didn't respond.

"What's up with you?" said Draco. "Is it that rumor that's bothering you? I don't know who spread it, but-"

"It was Blanc," Ginny said calmly, not even looking at him.

"Excuse me?" asked Draco. _Blanc_? She had to be joking.

"It was Blanc," repeated Ginny. She finally looked at him and put her quill down once more. "The French girl. Do you have a problem with that?"

Draco sighed heavily.

"You won't believe this," he said, "but Blanc kissed me the other day and-"

"_What_?" Ginny yelled, almost laughing. She was now looking up at him, and he could tell she was certainly amused.

"Yeah, I know. I had to tell her off and then she shouted something in French. She said your name, though," Draco told her, chuckling softly.

"My name?" said Ginny, grinning.

Draco couldn't help but see how… beautiful she was. He started fidgeting with his fingers and was looking down.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked, actually sounding concerned.

"Can I have some advice?" said Draco, turning to her. He was still fidgeting with his fingers, and he could tell Ginny took notice of this.

"Advice?" she repeated, looking at him in a weird way.

Draco nodded.

"All right," Ginny said, sighing and putting down her quill. "What is it?"

"Well, let's say there was this guy who liked this girl, but he was too afraid that she would freak out and run off when he told her he liked her. What should he do?"

Ginny arched an eyebrow. "You're not serious, are you?" she asked.

"I am!" Draco exclaimed, rather shrilly. Ginny realized that he was desperate, and she sighed.

"Okay, okay. Maybe this certain guy should tell her how he really feels and she might be touched," she told him. "Girls are easily pulled in by a man's charm."

_SCORE!_ Draco's mind shouted.

'What should I say to her now?' he asked himself eagerly.

_Hm… think of something charming._

'Got it.'

"Well… what if this guy was me?" he said.

_Good enough,_ the little voice sighed.

'Let's see you try.'

"Who's the girl, then?" Ginny asked, grinning and nudging Draco's shoulder playfully.

Draco took one big gulp and with all of his strength he said, "You."

Ginny's eyes widened.

"M-me?" she asked, only a few notches about a whisper. Her hand was still on Draco's shoulder as if it didn't want to move.

"Yes," Draco told her. Ginny could tell that he was afraid she would reject him. What was she supposed to do? This was Draco Malfoy! And he just told her that he liked her! It's not as if it was a regular everyday situation.

Ginny looked at Draco with suspicious eyes.

"But…" Ginny trailed off, her expression mystified, her eyes now to the floor. She let out a small laugh and looked back up at him. "You hate me."

Draco rolled his eyes, took Ginny by the neck and kissed her, hard.

At first, Ginny's head went back as if she were resisting, but as the kiss grew longer, she put her arms around Draco's neck and played with his slicked hair. Draco's put his arms around Ginny's waist and gently began rubbing her back.

The kiss seemed to go on forever and Ginny wanted the night to never end. Draco slid his hands up to her face where they rested on her freckled cheeks.

"Does that prove you wrong?" he said breathlessly, putting his forehead against hers.

"Draco…" Ginny said, her eyes closed. "I don't think we should do this. Maybe I should go."

Reluctantly, Ginny pulled away from him. She picked up her homework and started heading for the door, wiping off her lips and inhaling slowly. This couldn't be happening. Her and Draco Malfoy had just kissed! And it wasn't just a kiss. It was their bodies being so close, his hair being so soft, his scent. This was a dream and nothing more. Ginny was Alice falling down the rabbit hole. She was entering chaos and that was the last thing she wanted.

Right before she put her first foot out of the classroom, Draco spoke.

"Wait!" he cried. Ginny abruptly stopped and turned to him, leaning on the doorway. Draco looked completely devastated. "So that's it? You're just going to… walk away from me?"

Ginny sighed and put her things back down on the desk. What was there to say? How could she express that was going through her mind?

"It just doesn't seem right doing this," she told him, sitting back down in the chair. She held her head in her hands, trying to think.

"Why not? Ginny, don't you see? It's already happened. We can't forget about it and live our lives like nothing ever happened, because it already did. And I'm not going to let you walk out of here telling yourself that it didn't."

Ginny said nothing. Draco sighed and walked over to the desk, sitting on it. He picked up her chin and made her look into his eyes. "I know that this seems... strange, but that doesn't mean it's wrong."

Draco kissed her again, more passionately than before. He got up and took her hands so that they were both standing. Draco laid her down on a desk, their lips never parting. His hair was now completely messy from Ginny's hands going through all of it.

His lips slipped down to her neck, trailing kisses all around. Ginny giggled quietly. "Will somebody please tell me how this happened?" she said, making Draco look down at her and smile.

"Girls are easily pulled in by a man's charm," he replied, kissing her lightly on the nose.

"How did I fall for such a conceited git?" she joked, making Draco grin.

"Like this." And with that, he kissed her on the lips once more.


	10. Changes

Chapter Ten: Changes

The sun was coming up in the sky, lighting everything in its path; trees, grass, flowers, and two teenagers who were asleep in the Charms classroom of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry.

The two teenagers' names were Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy, which was a very shocking combination if you asked anyone who went to Hogwarts. It was simply unbelievable to think that a Gryffindor and a Slytherin fell asleep together all of the sudden.

But you have to believe it, it was no lie. Yes, they were both there; Ginny sprawled out on several desks and Draco producing a small puddle of saliva on the dusty floor.

The sun was right in Ginny's eyes, and she woke up with a small groan.

"I'll be up in a second, Mum," she muttered stupidly, flipping over and putting her head on her hands.

Draco's eyes slowly opened and he was surprised to see that he wasn't in his usual soft bed. "Huh?" he said, getting up off the floor. He wiped off his chin and looked up at Ginny. "What happened?" he asked her, now standing up. Ginny opened her eyes and sat up, just as bewildered as he was.

"I don't know… " she said. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was. "Why are we still in the Charms classroom?"

"I think we must've fallen asleep last night," Draco murmured. He was looking around as well and spotted Ginny's unfinished Defense Against the Dark Arts homework on the desk in the corner, making him smirk.

Ginny looked at Draco, her eyes questioning. "What did we exactly _do_ last night?" she asked.

Draco slightly grinned. "I don't think I want to know," he said. Ginny laughed at him and put her hand on the back of his neck, stroking his hair.

"I know what we did," she told him, looking deep into his eyes.

"Are you ashamed of it?" Draco said softly.

Pause.

"No," replied Ginny, kissing Draco's cheek. Draco smiled happily and picked her up off the desk. He set her down on the ground and put his hand in hers, still grinning. Then, suddenly, breaking Draco and Ginny's moment of affection, the door squeaked open.

"Students!" exclaimed Professor Flitwick, his head extended to look at how tall they both were. Ginny and Draco immediately let go of each other and Ginny blushed such a dark shade of red that Draco had to hold in a snicker and look to the side.

"Sorry, Professor," Ginny said quickly, covering up the awkward silence. "We… we were looking for you!"

"For me?" said Flitwick.

"For him?" said Draco.

"Why of course!" Ginny cried, gesturing to Draco to play along.

"Oh - right! Looking for you, Professor." He put on a fake smile.

"What for?" asked Professor Flitwick, looking suspicious. "Aren't you in different -"

"You see, Professor," interrupted Draco, taking over the situation. "We wanted to ask you about those Love Charms."

Ginny vigorously nodded her head. "Yes, those Love Charms that make somebody - love you," she said lamely, turning her head to Draco for help.

"You see, we both forgot how it was done! We didn't know whether the incantation was 'Herliosa' or 'Herlioso'," he explained, complete with hand motions.

"But it's the crack of dawn!" Flitwick squealed, still not believing their story.

Suddenly, Draco gasped dramatically. "Professor, how could you say such a thing?" he said in a scandalized voice. "We put our time and effort to wake up in the morning, get dressed, get all pretty for you, and what do you do? You scold us!"

Ginny's eyes widened as she tried to stifle a laugh.

"I expected better from you, Professor," Draco said quietly, folding his arms and looking away.

Professor Flitwick sighed in annoyance and looked up at Draco and Ginny. "It's 'Herlioso', Mister Malfoy and Miss Weasley. Now if you would be so kind, I must arrange today's lesson. Good day!"

Flitwick then quickly shooed them out of the room with his little hands. Ginny hurriedly picked up her homework on the way to the door, trying to hide it from the Professor so he would not notice.

Once they were out in the corridor, they both started laughing wildly.

"Priceless!" Ginny cried, wiping a tear from under her eye. "Where did you learn to act _nice_?"

Draco gave her a look mixed with anger and a small grin. "Definitely not my father," he murmured, looking at the ground.

Ginny frowned and rubbed his shoulder soothingly. Draco looked at her and smiled, taking her hand once more and entwining their fingers together.

"I feel like I can tell you anything, Ginny," he told her quietly, becoming lost in her dark brown eyes.

"You can," Ginny said. A genuine smile flashed across her lips as she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Listen, I'm going to go back to bed because I _know_ you don't expect me to stay awake," she continued. "So I suggest you get back to your common room so no one will guess anything happened. Believe me, you don't get up around this time."

Draco let out a small chuckle and looked at her as they reached the marble staircase.

"Well… bye," he said slowly.

"Bye," responded Ginny, and Draco kissed her hand. Ginny smiled widely and walked up the staircase, Draco staring up at her with a longing look.

&&&&&&&&&&

As slowly and quietly as she could, Ginny walked through the portrait hole and started tiptoeing across the crimson rugs, making sure (and praying with every inch of her being) that no one would wake up. The problem was, there was somebody lying wide awake on the couch, possibly the one person that Ginny was most scared to face.

"Where were you last night?"

It was Harry. He was lying on the couch in front of the fire, his eyes wide open and looking at the ceiling.

Ginny smacked herself in the head furiously and gritted her teeth. "What are you _doing_ in here?" she said, walking up to Harry and looking down at him in rage.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" Harry exclaimed. He sat up and put his hands between his knees.

"Listen, I was only at the detention -"

"Wow, I didn't know that detentions lasted until morning."

"Well, Draco and I had to stay a bit longer that planned -"

"And now you're on first-name basis?" said Harry angrily, looking up at Ginny. The emerald from his eyes was now completely gone and was replaced by a livid jade.

"It's none of your business!" Ginny shouted at him. She no longer cared if she woke up the entire Gryffindor Tower; it was just her and Harry now.

Harry stood up, and, surprisingly, Ginny noticed she was just as tall as him. It was so strange finally being face to face after all these years of dreaming about it…

"Malfoy's bad news, Ginny, don't trust him-"

"How can I trust _you_ is the bigger question," Ginny butted in, getting closer to Harry and poking his chest. Harry swallowed loudly.

"You know you can trust me," Harry told her, his voice becoming soft. "You can always trust me."

"Can I?" said Ginny with narrowed eyes. "Can I trust that you won't be staying up like a controlling bastard waiting for me to get back? Hm?"

"What the hell makes you think I'm controlling?" Harry said incredulously. "God, Ginny, every time I try to be here for you, you make it seem as if I'm there _too much_, like you can't stand me anymore and want me to vanish completely from your life. Is that what you want?"

"At the moment? Very much so."

"Ginny, I'm being serious," said Harry hurtfully.

"Yeah, well, so am I."

Harry sighed deeply and looked at Ginny in exasperation.

"Cho broke-up with me last night after dinner," he told her, sitting back down on the couch.

Ginny almost smiled at this… almost. How long had she been waiting to hear those words? But from the expression on Harry's face, she felt that she had already caused him enough, and sat down beside him, putting her hand on his arm.

"What happened?" she asked in barely above a whisper.

"After dinner last night, we were walking out of the Great Hall when she told me that she needed to talk to me in private. I hoped that she wasn't about to do what I had been dreading since we started going out, but that's exactly what she did. We went into that empty classroom close by the Great Hall, do you know which one I'm talking about?"

"Yeah, the unused one," Ginny said, nodding.

"Well, she sat me down and came right out and said what was on her mind," Harry continued. "She told me that she had cheated on me with Terry Boot and that they're planning to finally get together or something like that… mind you, I stopped listening right after she said the words 'I cheated'."

"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry," said Ginny in a sad voice, feeling awful about ever wanting them to breakup. "I know you liked her a lot."

"I didn't like her," muttered Harry. "I never did."

"What?" Ginny said confusedly. "You never liked her? Then why did -"

"I liked her once," Harry explained. "But that was a long time ago. I don't know what came over me when I asked her out. I was thinking about all sorts of things… about the girl I really loved, who didn't love me anymore."

Ginny swallowed, having an odd feeling that she knew the girl he was talking about…

"She and I never even had a relationship," said Harry furiously.

"You and Cho, or you and this mystery girl?" asked Ginny, twiddling with her fingers in her lap.

"Cho and I," Harry said, looking over at her. "The mystery girl and I always had a relationship… we just didn't know."

After that, Ginny and Harry just sat on the couch, occasionally glancing at each other and tapping their feet, but otherwise nothing moved or made a sound.

Ginny had never felt so guilty in her life. Cho had cheated on Harry, and then when he needed Ginny the most, she didn't want to be there. She didn't want to do this. Her and Harry had been friends for years, but for some reason… it was gone. At least, for her. And now Harry finally had feelings for her, which she didn't want either. And nothing had been more complicated. Her last five birthdays she had wished for it, and here it was, staring her in the face.

Nearly twenty minutes had gone by when Harry suddenly spoke.

"So… are you with Malfoy now or something?" he said, laughing quietly as if it were impossible.

"Actually, now that you mention it…" Ginny smiled to herself. "Yes, we are."

Harry's eyes widened with shock. "You and Malfoy?" he yelled frantically, standing up. Ginny almost jumped at his abrupt outburst.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know," she told him quietly, not in the least bit embarrassed or ashamed.

"**NOT AS BAD AS IT SOUNDS**?" Harry roared, even louder than he was the day before. Ginny winced as the sound split her eardrums.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the whole castle was awake now, Harry," she said, giving him a look of seriousness. Harry was still fuming, his face completely red. Ginny sighed and got up off the couch, giving him one last fleeting glimpse.He opened his mouth to say something, but Ginny turned and ran up the stairs. Shestrode into her dormitory, shut the door behind her, and crumpled to the floor in silent sobs.


	11. Anything But Thrilled

Chapter Eleven: Anything But Thrilled

"Ginny, wake up…"

Someone was shaking Ginny's shoulders.

"Ginny!"

"Chocolate pickles…" Ginny muttered in her sleep, covering her eyes. She heard a loud and girlish giggle in the distance.

Suddenly, Ginny jumped up in her bed, her eyes wide open.

"Who's there?" she exclaimed, looking everywhere but where Hermione was sitting right behind her.

Hermione laughed quietly and Ginny jumped about a foot in the air.

"Hermione!" she yelled, hitting Hermione in the face with her pillow.

"Calm down, Ginny, it was just a joke!" shouted Hermione, trying to block her face with her arms as Ginny swung like a maniac. Ginny stopped hitting her and Hermione saw that she looked like she was about to explode at any second.

"Whoever said you could come in here and wake me up?" she roared.

Hermione was completely silent, shocked by Ginny's outburst. She did not say anything as Ginny inhaled a humongous breath.

"Get out! Now!" she screamed, and Hermione practically flew out of the room in a flash. Ginny scowled and went back to her pillow for some more sleep, covering herself entirely with her blanket. At that moment, her alarm clock rang.

"DOES THE WHOLE WORLD WANT TO WAKE ME UP?" she bellowed, and she got out of bed furiously, wrapping her blankets around her nightgown.

A voice answered, "Well maybe if you weren't up so late last night with Malfoy you wouldn't be tired."

Ginny whipped around to the doorway where Harry stood, looking straight at her. He was still in his pajamas, his hands in his pockets. What made Ginny even angrier than before was that he had a grin as wide as Christmas on his face.

"_What _do you want, Harry?" she said exasperatedly, rolling her eyes at the ceiling.

"The same thing you want," he replied.

"And what's that?"

Pause.

"What _do_ you want, Ginny? An unhappy relationship with _Malfoy_?"

Harry looked like he was about to vomit from the thought of Ginny and Malfoy together.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him and made a face. "Listen, Harry, just because you're in love with me doesn't give you the right to criticize Draco, who's completely innocent."

"_Innocent_?" Harry said loudly, the grin he had sported earlier completely gone. "You call that monster i_nnocent_? Oh yes, he's an innocent little lamb who has done no harm at all to anyone. Have you lost your mind, Ginny?"

"Well, okay, he may not be _completely_ innocent, but you know what I mean!" Ginny told him fiercely.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Just come down to breakfast," he said, leaning on the doorway.

"_No_," Ginny said childishly, and she plopped back down on her bed to go back to her peaceful sleep… or so she thought.

Harry walked briskly over to her four-poster and pulled her covers off her entirely like her mother used to do, only to find that she was in her underwear… _only_ her underwear.

Ginny's eyes widened as she lay there, mortified.

"**_HARRY_**!"

She jumped out of bed, trying to cover herself up with her hands, and ran to the bathroom as fast as she could, slamming the door behind he.

"Ginny…" Harry began.

"SOD OFF, HARRY! I DON'T NEED YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT SEEING MY BODY, IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT YOU'RE IN MY DORMITORY!" she bellowed, her voice slightly muffled from the thick door.

"What are you doing in there?" asked Harry, coming closer to the door.

"Nothing you need to know, Mister Eavesdropper!" Ginny screeched.

Harry laughed.

"Why, shaving your bum?"

Almost at once, Ginny whipped the bathroom door open and rushed out, still in her underwear. Obviously she didn't care at all about that now. Harry took a step backward when he saw the look of pure venom on her face.

"I HOPE YOU-KNOW-WHO KILLS YOU TONIGHT! IN YOUR SLEEP! AND I'LL HELP HIM!"

Silence.

"What did you just say?" he asked, folding his arms, his eyes narrowed in disgust.

Harry couldn't believe Ginny just said that. She could tell when his jaw dropped open. Ginny had never been so infuriated in her life. She was breathing hard, her face beet red, and Harry's thoughts raced through his mind. He didn't doubt that Ginny was incapable of something of the sort; Voldemort had possessed her in their second year.

"Don't make me say it again," Ginny said, finally going back down to her normal speaking voice.

"I don't know what your problem is, Ginny," Harry muttered in rage. "It's like you're constantly angry. Are you and Malfoy having _problems _already -?"

Ginny brought her face closer to his and Harry stopped talking at once.

"Listen, Harry, I don't have time to answer your stupid twenty questions, so why don't you just leave before we repeat what happened the last time you got in my face?"

She half-grinned slyly, hoping this would at least scare him off.

Harry swallowed and glared at her. "I'm starting to think that maybe it's that time of the month again," he spat.

Ginny couldn't hold in her anger.

"AARRRGGHHH!"

As if she were a tiger hunting for prey, she pounced on Harry and starting slapping his arms like a little girl. She didn't want to hit him with magic, all she wanted to do was hit him senseless.

Harry himself was yelling in pain as waking Gryffindors watched in the doorway, gasping as Harry's glasses went flying off and shattering all over the floor, boys shouting for Ginny to take her bra off, Hermione screaming, "Stop, stop, stop!" and Ginny hitting Harry as hard as she possibly could.

"GET OFF OF ME!" he cried rather shrilly, and he turned her over while pinning her down with his legs. Several of the spectators in the doorway cheered him on as if it was an amusing Muggle wrestling match.

"AARRGGHHH!" Ginny yelled again, and she bit Harry's arm. The crowd suddenly yelled even louder, and Harry shrieked in pain as tiny amounts of blood starting to creep out of the spot where Ginny had sunk her teeth in.

Ginny stood up triumphantly, flipping her hair.

"Ginny!" Ron shouted, suddenly dashing in with sopping wet hair and his clothes disheveled. It seemed he was taking a shower when the fight had broken out. He walked over to Harry to see if his arm was okay, but Hermione pushed him over.

She muttered something under her breath and with a blinding white light, Harry's arm was magically healed. The three of them stood up, Harry eyeing Ginny with a mixture of fear and foreboding, Ron picking up the remains of Harry's glasses and repairing them with his wand. Ginny, realizing that more than two dozen people were staring at her half-naked, grabbed her blanket from her bed and wrapped it around herself.

"That was _not _necessary," Hermione said quietly, looking at both Harry and Ginny. There was silence. Hermione went on. "I don't know _what _has been going on with you two, but you better sort it out or I'll…" Hermione faltered for a second. "I'll tell Professor McGonagall about the fight!"

Suddenly, Harry and Ron started arguing.

"Oh, you've been saying you'll 'tell Professor McGonagall' for the past seven years," said Ron.

"Hermione, there's really no point," Harry told her. He looked at Ginny, who shifted where she was standing. "It was just a row, that's all."

Ginny thought to herself that Hermione must be angrier than she was. Ron, red in the face, scurried out of the room with Harry, and the Gryffindor crowd slowly dispersed. Ginny realized that she still had the blanket on, and, making sure that everyone had gone, put the blanket back on her bed and started searching through her drawers.

She glanced over at Hermione, who was standing near the doorway, her arms folded and furious look on her face.

Ginny sighed and smiled at her.

"Stop looking at me like that, 'Mione," she said carelessly. "Like Harry said, it was just a row - "

"I think you've got that wrong, Ginny," Hermione murmured. Ginny swallowed. "You could've really hurt Harry, and he really could've hurt you."

Ginny suddenly let out an awkward laugh as she put on a t-shirt.

"But nothing happened, we just - "

"Ginny, listen to me," interrupted Hermione. She sighed and walked over to the bed, sitting down. After putting on a pair of jeans, Ginny hesitantly joined her and lay down, stroking the soft sheets. Hermione didn't look at her as she spoke.

"I know you and Harry have had it rough," she said. "I know it hasn't been easy with him and Cho, but - "

"Who ever said this had anything to do with Cho?" Ginny interrupted loudly. Hermione went on, and she turned around to lay down with Ginny for what appeared to be a girl talk.

"I feel as if you're hiding something from me, Ginny," she said. Ginny didn't say anything. "And if you are, you know you can tell me anything."

"I know," said Ginny in a hard voice. "It's just… he never lays off! He's always in the middle of everything, I want him to… to… go away!"

Hermione looked confusedly at Ginny, her eyebrows together.

"In the middle of what?" she asked.

Ginny shook her head. "Nothing," she said, sighing. She couldn't bring herself to tell Hermione about her and Draco – she was definitely not in the mood for more yelling. "I mean… in general."

"Ginny… didn't I just say you can tell me anything?" Hermione told her, her eyes big and her eyebrows raised.

There was a long silence in which Ginny fidgeted with her bed hangings and looked at the ceiling.

Hermione suddenly sat back up and got off of the bed, looking back at Ginny thoughtfully.

"If you don't want to tell me, I understand. Just remember that my office door is always open."

She half-grinned and walked out of the room.

&&&&&&&&&&

Though Ginny was having trouble with getting the sleep she had told him she would undoubtedly have, Draco was dreaming peacefully in his dormitory. This was not going to last, however, for right at that moment, somebody shook him awake unpleasantly.

"Wake up, Draco!"

It was Blaise. He was in his green silk pajamas, the fabric washing over his skinny arms and legs.

Draco opened his eyes wearily and looked at Blaise.

"Wha?" he said as he rubbed his eyes ferociously with both of his hands.

Blaise looked at him with his arms folded.

"C'mon, Draco, breakfast starts in less than five minutes and you're not even up!"

"Well you're not dressed, Zabini, why should I be?" Draco responded in a croaky voice, not yet adjusted to the morning chill.

Blaise rolled his eyes and left the dormitory without saying another word.

Slowly, Draco got out of his four-poster bed and started to get dressed. Once he was fully clothed, he walked out of the dormitory, all the way out of the common room, and straight to the Great Hall. He wanted to bump into Ginny at least accidentally while he was walking, but everybody was already in the Great Hall, he must've been late.

As Draco walked through the Great Hall doors, Ginny was sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table, and he was standing almost right in front of her. Ginny's friends were all with her, so he couldn't say anything to her. All he did was smile and went over to the Slytherin table, in which Blaise was saving him a spot.

&&&&&&&&&&

God, he was handsome. He was everything Ginny could ever dream of, even more.

Ginny and her girlfriends were sitting right at the end of Gryffindor table, near the Great Hall entrance, eating their breakfast. Her friends, who had heard of the fight earlier, asked every single question possible, from "Why did you do it?" to "How many slap marks were on his face?"

Suddenly, breaking the conversation, Draco walked into the Great Hall looking frazzled. He spotted Ginny almost immediately.

Ginny and Draco were just looking at each other, not even noticing the people all around them. Draco sneaked a grin at her and walked off to his own House table.

"And just _what _was that all about, Ginny, dear?" said Jamie, one of Ginny's girlfriends. The fight had completely slipped their minds after what just happened in front of their own eyes. Ginny turned to look and every one of her friends was staring at her in a bizarre way, desperate for an answer.

"Excuse me?" she asked, pretending she didn't hear correctly.

"You heard her," said Shannon. "_Why_ were you and Malfoy _smiling_ at each other?"

Ginny laughed quietly.

"Don't be so silly, Shannon, why would me and Malfoy ever even be making _eye contact_? That idea is just absurd, an absolute outrage, a - "

"Don't play dumb," interrupted Heidi. "Believe me, I know people dumber than you and they don't even act like that." They all laughed together as Ginny put down her fork.

"Well… I can't really tell."

"Why not?" said Taryn, the last of the bunch. Ginny turned bright pink as she looked down at her plate.

"Wait, wait, wait… do you _like _him or something?" Shannon asked. She leaned in as if it were a secret huddle. Once again, Ginny turned crimson and didn't answer. Instead, she got up.

"Er - I think I'm full enough. Nice talking to you girls, but I must be off."

Ginny left the Great Hall while her friends stared at her untouched food.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco knew they were probably talking about him. Of course he knew. What else would they be huddling in on or talking about?

_And look at my poor girlfriend_, Draco thought. He saw her pink face and when she deserted the Great Hall, Draco stood up to follow her.

"Where are you going?" Blaise asked. Draco looked down at him and thought for a moment.

"The bathroom."

Blaise probably knew it was a complete lie, but he stayed silent. Blaise never really asked many questions, which was one of the reasons Draco liked being his friend; no questions.

Draco practically flew out of the Great Hall and looked around for Ginny. Finally he saw her walking down the corridor and he caught up to her.

"Ginny."

Ginny jumped and looked up at Draco with her hand on her chest.

"Draco!" she cried. "You scared me."

Draco grinned and took her hand off her chest and onto his. She leaned back on the corridor wall and they kissed. First lightly, then hard and long.

After awhile, Ginny looked down and then looked back at Draco, his blue gray eyes sparkling. She almost considered telling Draco all about her and Harry's row, but decided to give Harry a break for once. Ginny couldn't risk him being punched in the face by none other than Draco Malfoy for no reason at all, no matter how much she may have wanted it; people would ask questions.

"Breakfast is almost over," she said quietly, smiling.

Draco had a look of seriousness on his face. You're right," he said, slightly backing away. His hand was still leaning on the wall, as if Ginny was in his arms.

"Meet me in the Owlery at… 5:00?" he asked her.

"Of course," Ginny told him, and Draco kissed her on the cheek before going back to the Great Hall.

Ginny sighed heavily and continued walking down the corridor, dreamily thinking of what her and Draco might do in the Owlery.

What she didn't know was that somebody watched them… a terrible somebody… a father of some sort.


	12. Captured

A/N: The 12th chapter! Yessss. Feel the power. Ohhhhh yeahhhhh.

Chapter Twelve: Captured

Roaming the halls of Hogwarts once again didn't quite ease his anger, seeing as he hated it from the start. Why Lucius went there in the first place, he never knew.

How _Draco _could even go there, he never knew.

But no, Narcissa said Durmstrang was 'too far from home'.

And Draco just had to meet that Weasley girl and fall in love with her.

If only it was easy enough to get rid of her.

Dumbledore was on close watch of anything related to that horrible boy Potter; those wretched Weasleys were certainly a part of his life.

Fortunately, he had watched his son for the past week and he had seen signs he never even dreamed of seeing.

Signs that triggered a sense of alertness; he needed to find out what his son had with that girl.

And Lucius found out enough to see that they were in love.

It was sickening to watch. The detentions, the looks in the corridors, the stares from the Slytherin table to the Gryffindor table.

Lucius had to get rid of this… this… _relationship_… before it went any further.

Last he knew of, Draco and the girl (her name Ginny, he concluded) were meeting in the Owlery at 5:00, the time in which classes ended.

To many people, it might've seemed hard to do this, but Lucius had it all planned out already.

The girl was weak.

He could tell by her thin stature, her scrawny, yet long legs, and her skinny arms that she was weaker than ever.

She may have been tall, but she wasn't strong.

This was too easy.

&&&&&&&&&&

"Transfiguring creatures into humans takes time as well as practice. This isn't Transfiguration, however, it is Potions, so I'm sorry to INTERRUPT ANY DAYDREAMERS."

Professor Snape was right in Draco's face while Draco himself was sleeping like a little baby.

"Mister Malfoy, I don't allow drooling in my classroom," Snape hissed. As he did this, he sprayed Draco with spit, which was the thing that woke him up.

Draco's eyes snapped open as he wiped Snape's shower off his face. Rather reluctantly, Snape muttered, "Five points from Slytherin."

He spun on his heel back to the front of the room where he stood, still gaping at Draco, who rubbed his left eye.

"Sorry, Professor," he said, not meaning it at all. He wanted the class to finally be over so he could get to Ginny in the Owlery. One thing Draco forgot all about, though, was protecting her. The time still hadn't come and Ginny was perfectly fine so far, but something would happen to her very soon that Draco didn't know about.

"As I was saying," continued Professor Snape, turning back to his class, "the _transfigmor normit_, otherwise known as the Changing Draught, is meant to be used painstakingly and you must follow the directions clearly, or someone may very well get turned into some kind of cactus…" he stopped a second. "Which is most likely what will happen once we get started."

Draco yawned widely as he saw Snape stare pointedly at Neville Longbottom. He wondered what time it was, probably around 4:00…

"The instructions are on the board, as are the ingredients," Professor Snape told them, pointing his wand to the blackboard somewhat boringly.

Draco knew class was definitely going to be long; the potion today was the hardest he had ever seen…

"To your right, the salamander scales are in small bags of six teaspoons, for you and your partner will use three teaspoons each…"

"Oh Draco," whispered Pansy next to him in a simpering voice. "I'm so glad we're in Slytherin together. If we weren't, how would we _ever_ be partners all the time?"

Draco sighed heavily.

He didn't think the class would ever end.

&&&&&&&&&&

"Ginny, you look like you're getting ready for a _date_," sang Heidi, surrounded by Taryn, Jamie, and Shannon.

Ginny turned around and saw that all four girls were grinning in an evil kind of way, as if they were saying they knew about everything with her and Draco.

"What are you talking about?" she said after a long pause, blinking falsely.

"You're going somewhere with _Draco_, aren't you?" asked Taryn.

Ginny blushed like she did that morning, realizing that her friends weren't as dumb as she thought they were.

Another long pause.

"You caught me," she told them quietly.

They all inhaled as they heard this and each grinned again, wider than ever before.

"I knew it all along!" exclaimed Shannon.

"Congratulations," Taryn said.

"What are you talking about, Shannon? You had no idea!" Jamie told her, laughing.

"Well…" started Heidi, looking at Ginny with envy. "You got yourself the sex god of the century."

Ginny frowned.

"Excuse me?" she said, folding her arms angrily and narrowing her eyes.

"You mean you haven't even _heard_?" Heidi said, actually looking pleased. Ginny was already heating up with irritation; why was Heidi all the sudden acting like this around her?

"Everyone knows that Draco is the best in bed."

Ginny's lips were getting thinner.

"Go on," she said, as if challenging Heidi to say more. Heidi seemed to not notice this and continued with what she was saying, and in addition to this, she rolled her eyes.

"Every girl in the school wants him Ginny, you just have to look," she said, making Ginny shift uncomfortably. "Whenever Draco walks through the corridors, just watch how many girls stare at him."

Ginny scowled crossly.

"I'll decide when I want to see other girls staring at my boyfriend," Ginny told her, and Heidi raised her eyebrows in an attempt at a fake surprise.

"So he _is _your boyfriend," she said, and the rest of the girls looked around at each other. Heidi had a distinct feel of victory coming off of her, like she was trying to get this out of Ginny all along. Ginny just looked at the ground to her side and kept her head down until Heidi spoke again.

"It's funny," she said, and Ginny looked back up at her. "I always thought of you as one who wouldn't go for his heart, maybe lower than that…"

Ginny unfolded her arms and had a disbelieving look on her face.

"Are you saying you think I'm _using _him?" she asked loudly as the three other girls stayed completely silent. Ginny knew they probably had nothing to do with this, especially Shannon, one of her best friends that would never doubt her.

But Heidi was something different.

"Basically," Heidi said, picking dirt from under her fingernail. She looked very bored, as if this conversation wasn't exactly her image of useful spare time.

Ginny glared at Heidi for awhile before deciding that she should make her exit before things got out of control. She started walking out of the dormitory but Heidi stopped her.

"I hope you and Draco have a fabulous time in his dormitory, you have to tell me all about it tomorrow," she said loathingly, her upper lip curling.

Ginny halted all of the sudden and stayed where she was before turning her head up to look at Heidi and the rest of the girls. Jamie looked like she was really sorry, but she couldn't do anything about it as she gave Ginny a pleading look. Taryn and Shannon were keeping their heads low and weren't making eye contact with her. Heidi was giving off a sort of angry vibe.

It was silent for a while before Ginny realized she was late for meeting Draco. She was so caught up in her and Heidi's conversation that she forgot she actually needed to be somewhere.

She took one last look at all of her friends (who she at least _thought _were friends) and sighed.

"I'll take my leave now," she said, and she walked out of the dormitory, leaving the rest of them there to stay with Heidi.

Ginny didn't need them anyway.

&&&&&&&&&&

God, she was already twenty minutes late.

Draco was waiting for Ginny in the Owlery, owls all around him waking up from their sleep to go hunting.

Okay, so he was angry that she was late.

Maybe she wasn't coming at all.

Maybe she was just having trouble getting ready.

Or maybe something happened to her…

Draco suddenly remembered his dream. He remembered what the woman said in his dream about Ginny and about protecting her.

Oh, he had been so stupid!

What was he doing, waiting up in the Owlery for her?

Draco hurried out of the small building and ran back to the castle as fast as he could. He wanted so badly to see her he forgot about the dream and all of the signs… no, she wouldn't get hurt. Don't let her get hurt.

Suddenly Draco heard a deafening scream that rang in the corridors, a scream that was so loud it would've made him deaf if he hadn't of plugged his ears in time.

The scream was then cut off.

Draco slowly removed his fingers from his ears and looked around him, wide-eyed. The scream sounded like it had been so close to him, but then again, it sounded like it had been far, far away…

No…

Not Ginny…

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny was running through the corridors as fast as she could, trying to get to the grounds on time to make it to the Owlery. She desperately hoped that Draco wouldn't leave it without her…

Ginny didn't know why this was so important to her, she could just owl Draco in the morning and tell him what came up, but she had a feeling that someway, somehow, she wouldn't be able to make it till morning…

But no, that was just a silly thought.

Maybe it wasn't so important after all.

Ginny started slowing down and finally started walking. She was in the Transfiguration corridor, which was close to the Great Hall, so she wasn't far from the castle entrance.

Suddenly, Ginny heard footsteps behind her. They sounded something like boots, which confused her. Somebody wearing _boots _at Hogwarts?

Ginny started speeding up again, becoming scared. Was someone following her?

The boots clicked faster as Ginny turned a corner, and then, unexpectedly, she saw somebody come out of the shadows.

Ginny screamed as loud as she could as the person wrapped his hand around her mouth, silencing her.

Ginny's own hands flew up to the black glove over her face, which was even more suspicious. She knew it was definitely an adult; it wasn't anyone from the school.

Ginny tried screaming like before, but she couldn't. She was breathing as hard as she could out of her nose, which was very difficult.

"_Stupefy_," muttered a cold voice, and the last Ginny saw was complete darkness.

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A/N: Arrghhh!! Another chapter in which I've neglected to write for soooo long! Well, here it is! Chapter twelve! Hoped you liked it! Haha, kinda left ya hangin there, but wait for the next chapter!

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

-goob-


	13. Gone

A/N: Wow. It's already the 13th chapter. I honestly can't believe I'm going this far with this story, because usually I get writer's block and then I just stop writing. But this is different. I actually made this up a long time ago in a summary that I never thought was possible for me to write. But I'm writing it. Here's chapter thirteen!

Chapter Thirteen: Gone

"What exactly are you talking about, Mister Malfoy?" Dumbledore said, his fingers together and his eyes twinkling.

Draco stared at Dumbledore for what seemed like an eternity. Dumbledore couldn't provide an answer for him? But Dumbledore had to have an answer for everything. There had to be an explanation.

"Professor, I heard that scream and I know whose it was!" Draco cried. He was panicking. That scream had belonged to Ginny, who else could it have been?

Dumbledore looked back at Draco and sighed.

"Well, Mister Malfoy, if Miss Weasley does not turn up tomorrow, I suppose we could start a search," he said. He looked rather tired at the moment as if something else was on his mind that was bothering him.

"And that's it? A search? That's _all _you're going to do?" muttered Draco, and Dumbledore sighed again.

"Mister Malfoy, something else has gone on if you haven't noticed it in the _Daily Prophet_, but…" he trailed off and didn't finish his sentence as if maybe he shouldn't tell Draco this at all.

Draco waited.

"What is it? What's happened?" he asked. He was definitely losing his patience right about now.

Dumbledore sighed the last time and said,

"Your father has gone missing."

Draco blinked.

"_What_?" he said, his breathing coming to an abrupt halt.

"He hasn't gone to work for days, he hasn't been at the manor, and no one can seem to find him anywhere," Dumbledore explained. He looked down at his desk and avoided making direct eye contact with Draco.

Draco sat down in one of the chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk and looked over at the other. Not more than a week ago, Ginny was sitting there. He looked back up at Dumbledore who was twiddling his thumbs and staring up at the ceiling.

"Professor, do you think that maybe my father could be… here? At Hogwarts?" he asked, and Dumbledore's eyes went from the ceiling to Draco, sitting there, looking very disheveled (he had run to the headmaster's office when he heard the scream).

"What ever makes you think that he would be here?" Dumbledore said. His eyes twinkled once again in a mysterious kind of way.

Draco swallowed; he couldn't tell Dumbledore about the dream, it was just downright absurd.

"Just… just a guess, that's all," he lied, and he put his hands in his hands. What if…? No, it couldn't be possible… could it?

Draco took his head out of his hands and looked down at the floor, thinking of what to do. He glanced up at Dumbledore, who was smiling at him and twiddling his thumbs once again.

"Mister Malfoy, there is one thing that is confusing me… why do you care for Miss Weasley all of the sudden?"

Draco swallowed.

"No reason, just… I care for everyone!"

Dumbledore's smile widened.

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny was lying down on a soft bed, made up of green satin sheets. She slowly opened her eyes and discovered that she was in a very large room with bright candles and what looked like silver walls in the dim light.

"Where am I?" she asked to herself quietly, getting up out of the bed and realizing that she was in the same clothes as she was in when she was still at Hogwarts.

"You're at the Malfoy Manor," a malicious voice answered behind her. Ginny whipped around and was shocked to see Lucius Malfoy standing there with his long black robes and white-blonde ponytail. She looked at his hands that were covered with black gloves.

Ginny's eyes met with his gray ones and he smirked nastily.

"Why am I here? What are you going to do to me?" she said. Malfoy looked at her with venom and walked up to her so that they were inches apart.

"That's for me to know and you to find out, little girl."

He turned on his heel and left the room. Once he shut the door, Ginny heard the door lock, and she plopped back down on the bed, feeling suddenly aware of what was happening.

Malfoy must have found out about her and Draco and was planning to do something to her…

Somehow she had to get out of this place, this… _prison _and try to find her way to London or her house so she could tell someone…

Suddenly, interrupting Ginny's thoughts, the door opened again and Malfoy was standing there waiting for her.

"You will now eat your dinner, Weasley, and no complaining… I don't feel the need to have my chefs cook anything big for you, so they just made you some roast potatoes," he said. Ginny didn't move. "You're either having the potatoes or you're having nothing."

Ginny still didn't move.

At this, Malfoy's upper lip curled in fury and he spat, "You shall not have meals from now on because of your disobedience. I hope you're happy, Weasley."

He slammed the door and locked it while Ginny laid back down on the bed, clutching a pillow.

What was going on?

&&&&&&&&&&

"Draco, you need to go to bed. It's almost one in the morning and you've been sitting there the whole night."

It was 12:30 and Draco was sitting in one of the Slytherin common room chairs, where he had been ever since he walked back down from Dumbeldore's office, which was around 6:00. He had been thinking about that _scream_, which was plaguing his mind more than ever. Who could it have been? Why did they scream in the first place? Where were they now? What happened?

"Hello, anybody in there?"

Draco looked up at Blaise in what seemed like defeat.

"Fine, fine, I'll go to bed," he muttered, and he got up out of the chair with difficulty. He felt a pain in his back from sitting there for such a long time and he stretched.

"What's been on your mind? It looks like something is bothering you," said Blaise. He looked at Draco in what looked like concern for his friend, and Draco himself yawned widely. Instead of answering, he changed the subject.

"You know, you need to go to bed as well, what have you been doing all this time?" he said.

Blaise shook his head sighed heavily, putting his hand on Draco's back and leading him towards their dormitory.

Meanwhile…-

"Hermione, Harry and I both need you to help us with our essays… Snape will kill us if we don't do them!" Ron exclaimed, handing her his essay in haste.

Hermione looked at Ron and rolled her eyes. When could Ron ever do his own work? As she was checking through it hastily, Ron turned to Harry and they started talking about (of course) Quidditch.

In the middle of all of this, Taryn, Shannon, and Jamie came running down the stairs from their dormitories and went straight to the three. Everybody in the common room at the time looked up at them (there were few, as it was very late at night).

"We can't find Ginny!" they all shrieked, and the Hermione gasped.

"At this time? Where could she be?" she said in panic, putting down the two essays. Harry and Ron were staring at the three girls, and they all were very pale. They realized that Heidi wasn't among them, who they thought was Ginny's friend.

"Where's Heidi?" asked Harry, voicing his thoughts. The girls all looked at one another and Shannon decided to finally answer.

"She's gone as well."

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A/N: Yes, very short chapter, but just giving you another cliffhanger I guess. But maybe it doesn't matter if Heidi's gone, she's a little brat anyway, heha.

Anyways, I can't stand leaving you reviewers out of the limelight, so I'll just recognize all of my reviewers right now! Yes, all of you, even the ones that might've criticized or something. Whatever. Anyway, these messages out to you guys are ones that are based on your last reviews that you posted! Thanks! BTW, not EVERYONE has a message, but that's only because they left a short review and I don't know what to say! To all of those people without a message, THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING!

Ally Sweet-**(The very same question, I think, is on everyone's mind: 'What's gonna happen!' It's even on my mind!) **GinnyPotter387-**(Probably my most frequent reviewer. Don't worry, just for your sake, I won't kill Ginny. But someone WILL die in this fic, it may break peoples' hearts, but certainly not mine. That should give you a hint, LOL. I love Say It To My Face! Please update it soon!) **Nessie-**(I have no idea what you're talking about when you say Harry had red eyes, but your reviews mean a lot to me anyway, LOL!) **kneh13-**(Yes, Blanc du Gris. You'll find out about her soon, probably by the next chapter. Thanks!) **Andelin-**(When are you going to write my story in German? LOL.) **DiagonAlley,Coolchicka-**(Wow I don't think your reviews could get any better! Thank you for supporting me, you helped me write more and better!) **RedSkyez, Kristin Riddle-**(Yeah, in this fic, Harry is being a MAJOR prick! In normal fics, he's this big hero, but, sorry, in this one… not so good. LOL.) **mell, Chick4Skater, DobbyMania89, VanillaTwist-**(Actually, Draco really DOES like Ginny, and that's why he's protecting her in the first place! Personally, I would've picked the lap dance too!) **Yochy, Arella Hallo-**(A lap dance is always good, LOL!) **destinygurl-**(Yes, I actually think the plot on this story is good, but I'm also afraid that lots of people use it already. Oh well. Mine's different, and you'll see why…) **digi-rain-**(Okay, your review ACTUALLY helped me write better! I don't do that lame dictionary thing at the bottom of the page, and my story, I think, has actually improved! Thanks for pointing out to me that I was being so sucky! Really. I'm serious. LOL.) **GinnyYvetteHermione, HP Girl, and hahatushkaru!

I'm going to start doing these every chapter (if I can, at least) and leaving messages to only ones that review the chapter! Sooo…

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

goob-


	14. The Keeper of Venom

Chapter Fourteen: The Keeper of Venom

Ginny was asleep in the Malfoy Manor, in the same bed where she was put. She seemed to be having very odd dreams, dreams that consisted of Lucius killing Draco off whileshescreamed in a corner or Lucius killing _her _while Draco was at Hogwarts, thinking that she was safe in her common room.

In another dream, Ginny was asleep in the same bed when Draco came into the room. He'd sit on the bed, nothing out of the ordinary, and when Ginny woke up to find him sitting there, she would smile and kiss him and was assured she was going back to Hogwarts. The he'd vanish in gray smoke.

After every dream (or should I say nightmare), she would wake up, breathing hard and sweating as if she were just running. Ginny didn't know why she was even having these dreams in the first place, but then realized where she was, who she was with, and that no one would come and save her in time.

&&&&&&&&&&

"Where could she have gone?"

"What's happened?"

"Did you hear about the Weasley girl?"

"_Gone?_"

"Maybe she ran away!"

"Do you suppose she could have flown off?"

"_Gone!_"

Whispers flew from table to table in the Great Hall that morning, everybody talking about how Ginny had suddenly disappeared over the night. Somehow it must've finally leaked out into the school by all of the Gryffindors, and, to Draco's surprise, the Slytherins at his table were all looking very smug about this.

"Blaise!" Draco exclaimed, glaring at his friend, who looked like he was actually smirking.

"What?" said Blaise, one eyebrow raised. Draco swallowed and flushed. Was he going to tell his best friend off just for smirking? When he did it the most out of all the Slytherins?

"N-nothing," he mumbled, and he went back to eating his breakfast, looking back up at Blaise every now and then with angry eyes.

All of the sudden, disrupting the loudness of the Great Hall, Dumbledore stood up and everybody fell completely silent.

"There has been a disappearance of a Hogwarts student, as many of you may know," he said croakily, staring down at them all. Nothing seemed to be heard, not even the distant hoot of an owl outside or the shuffle of feet under a table.

"Ginny Weasley has indeed gone missing."

At once, the silence was broken. Several students started whispering again and Draco distinctly saw that the Slytherin smirks had gotten wider, including Blaise's.

Dumbledore got them quiet again by clearing his throat loudly and slowly the whispering ceased.

"I do not wish to have any of you students looking for her or being concerned for her safety. I assure every student that she will return safely."

Draco knew that Dumbledore really did not mean this, but understood it was so none of them got too worried; he saw out of the corner of his eye that Blaise was really smiling now, looking like he was enjoying all of this.

Dumbledore cleared his throat even louder, and, once again, the Great Hall was quiet.

"The Quidditch game today between Slytherin and Ravenclaw shall not be postponed, so I expect all of the House teams be prepared. Thank you."

Dumbledore sat back down and everybody started eating again, looking fearfully at one another.

Suddenly, with dawning apprehension, Draco remembered the Quidditch game today and clenched his fists furiously. How could he have forgotten? Blaise reminded him yesterday in Transfiguration. But, of course, he was absorbed in the fact that he would be meeting Ginny when classes were over, so it most obviously slipped his mind.

Draco got up and walked out of the Great Hall, not even telling Blaise where he was going. He didn't even need to speak to Blaise anymore if he was pleased about his girlfriend vanishing. Then Draco also remembered how nobody even _knew _that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, nobody even _knew _that the girl everyone thought of this shy, little weakling was kidnapped. There was no hiding it, Draco knew that the scream belonged to Ginny.

But… by whom?

Tons of names popped up in Draco's mind as he was facing the entrance of the Slytherin common room.

"Parseltongue," he muttered, and right before he entered the common room, he bumped into none other than…

"Draco!" gasped Pansy Parkinson, running straight into him. Pansy had the face of a pug, though which many people noticed, they did not criticize as they knew that her and her gang of Slytherin girls would probably do something horrible if the leader of the pack was made fun of. She clutched one of Draco's arms and looked up at him eagerly.

Draco stared down at her for a long period of time and saw some sparkle in her dark eyes, some sort of excitement. He knew this was probably a bad thing, so he wiggled her off of his arm and went right past her to his dormitory.

Pansy turned and followed him.

"Oh, Draco, how _awful _it is to have that Weasley girl go missing on such an important day as this!" she said rather sarcastically, but Draco paid no attention. He went under the bed and retrieved his trunk, opened it, put it on the bed, and stared back at Pansy.

"Important day as this?" he repeated, looking confused. "What are you talking about, Parkinson?"

Draco immediately regretted saying this as Pansy's puglike face was turned into a pout. He calling her 'Parkinson' had clearly offended her. Pansy decided not to say anything about it, however, and answered him in what sounded like a high-pitched frilly voice.

"The Quidditch match, Draco. Against Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw's in the lead of the Quidditch Cup, and if we beat them we'll be right under Gryffindor. You're going, aren't you?"

Draco seriously considered just kicking Pansy right out of his dormitory, he hated the way she goggled at him like some fancy dress in a shop window. He sighed and started piling all of his things into his trunk, ignoring the gasp he heard to his side where Pansy was standing.

"Are you _running away_?" she asked incredulously, walking closer and goggling at him some more with her eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.

Draco looked back at her with no certain emotion on his face.

"I'm leaving, but I'm coming back," he said.

Pansy gasped again.

"Well where are you going? You can't just _leave_, I mean… what will I _do _without you?" her voice was shrill as if she had just gotten the worst news of her life. Draco just rolled his eyes at her.

"Stop acting like you're my girlfriend, I already have one."

He closed his trunk with a loud snap that echoed in the cold dungeons and he started walking out of the dormitory, Pansy trailing closelybehind him.

"You already have…?"

And before Pansy could say anything more, Draco was gone.

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny was sitting at the edge of the bed, staring down at the floor. She was bored out of her mind, something she was not used to because something unusual was always happening at Hogwarts.

But Ginny was not at Hogwarts.

She was at the Malfoy Manor, a much different place. The manor was so quiet all the time, as if nobody was living in there at all. Several times Ginny saw what was unmistakably a house elf crack open the door, look at her, then squeal loudly and slam the door shut.

There was only one window in the room, a small window in which only a little baby could fit in, and there was dim light coming from it. Suddenly, making Ginny jump about a foot off the bed, a snowy owl came flying through the small window and landed on the bed.

Ginny stared at it for awhile before realizing that it had an envelope attached to its leg, and she mouthed the word 'Ohhhh' as she took it off and the beautiful owl flew away.

At first thought she suspected it might've been from Harry because he was the only one she knew with a snowy owl, but apparently he wasn't.

_Ginny,_

_Sorry I haven't responded to you as soon as you may like, but I dunno what Malfoy's problem may be. Probably a madman or something. Anyway, George and I here and making oodles of money in Hogsmeade, our stuff's selling more than Zonko's! Of course, the man hates us now, but… easy come, easy go. Like my owl? Yes, she's a beaut. Got her down in Diagon Alley. Named her Molly just to irritate Mum. Hope you're having a nice year!_

_Love,_

_Fred_

Not only was Fred's letter late, but it didn't even give advice on Draco (not that she needed it; this just made her angry).

So much to rely on Fred.

Breaking her train of thought, the door opened. Ginny hastily stuffed the letter down her shirt and turned around, swallowing when she saw Lucius standing there, looking livid.

"I have just seen an owl fly into this room. Did it send you a letter?" he asked coldly, looking at her with malice. Something about that look made her nervous just answering his question.

"Er - no."

Malfoy scowled at her and his eyes moved downward to the letter sticking out in her shirt. He smirked and walked over to her, holding out his hand.

"Give me the letter, Weasley," he demanded, and Ginny immediately did so.

Malfoy read over the letter, his scowl getting bigger as he went. When he was finished, he crumpled up the letter in his hands and picked up Ginny by the arm, his fingernails digging into her skin. She winced in pain.

"MADMAN, AM I? WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!" he roared, and they trudged into the hall, a narrow passageway with several doors on each side.

Malfoy turned left and scurried down the hall, Ginny at his side. She was practically running to keep up with him as they turned into a door at the right.

The room was bright and square, and looked like some kind of family room. It was filled with black leather couches and soft, ruby red carpet. Above them was a humongous gold chandelier, as big as a full-grown Blast-Ended Skrewt. It was lined up with candles and it seemed to be giving off a very distinguished glow.

Lucius pushed Ginny onto one of the sofas and she looked up at him in fear, curling up in her spot.

"Want to see what a madman can do?" he said venomously, taking his wand out of his robe pocket.


	15. An Enemy Unsuspected

Chapter Fifteen: An Enemy Unsuspected

"I can't wait to go out there and help him just _torture _her. I hate waiting in here like a child."

Two girls were sitting in the kitchen, slowly eating Chocolate Frogs and watching the clouds from inside the window. One of them was tall, had long, dark brown hair, and intense green eyes. The other had short, dirty blonde hair and, at the time, her eyes were narrowed in disgust. She picked up a Chocolate Frog card and looked at it revoltingly.

"Another Dumbledore," she muttered, ripping it to pieces and throwing it in the trash. "They just can't seem to get enough of that _bloke_ now, can they?"

The brunette girl did not say anything, and after while the other just shrugged. She decided she'd rather change the subject than go on.

"Ever since I decided to help Lucius with this my whole life has changed. I lost all my friends and more importantly, I lost _Draco_…"

"Is this why you're getting back at Ginny?" the brunette (Blanc was her name) asked, her eyes unfocused. She seemed to be very out of it. Something was definitely wrong with her, but the other couldn't figure out what it was.

"I suppose so. I lost everything just to kill her and I guess now's the time to get my revenge. What are _you_ doing here anyway?"

Blanc looked at the other for a long awhile, apparently lost in thought. What _was_ she doing there? She tried to think as hard as she could, but nothing whatsoever came to mind. It was like her chalkboard kept being erased over and over until she just gave up. Blanc closed her eyes and inhaled.

"I can't remember."

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco couldn't believe he was actually hiding in a broom closet. In addition to that, he was attempting to escape Hogwarts and go back to the Manor. It was pretty obvious what had happened to Ginny.

His father took her.

Millions of reasons kept floating around in Draco's mind, but he just couldn't _assume _that Lucius had just taken her because of their relationship; how would he even _know _about their relationship in the first place? Draco peeked out of the broom closet door and suddenly saw Harry Potter, slowly pacing and occasionally stopping to glance to his left and right. Draco shut the door in haste and swore under his breath.

Why on earth did Potter have to be standing right in Draco's vicinity when he had to get to Ginny quickly without anybody noticing? He considered not breathing for as long as possible so Potter wouldn't hear him and come investigating, but he was lucky enough to hear Potter's footsteps go by without opening the door.

Draco counted to twenty before cracking the door open to look around and Potter was gone. He opened the door to its fullest extent and lugged his trunk out of it. Suddenly he realized what he should've done in the first place.

"_Locomotor trunk_," he whispered, and the trunk lifted up into the air and Draco led it out of the entrance doors, walking rather quickly.

Draco crossed the lawns soundlessly, running as fast as he could to get to Hogsmeade. He could not risk being seen by anyone through a window, and especially not by a teacher.

Finally Draco arrived at Hogsmeade and looked around. He thought for a moment and cursed himself for being so stupid. How was he supposed to _get_ to the Manor?

He looked around for some sort of help, and remembered that his Nimbus 2001 was in his trunk. He put his trunk to the ground and hurriedly opened it up. Draco found his broom, took it out, closed the trunk, and tried to think of how to lighten it. As Draco racked his brain for solutions, he finally thought of something.

"_Resilio_," he said, pointing his wand at his trunk. Suddenly, the trunk started shrinking rapidly, and was soon the size of a ring box. Draco picked it up and put it in his pocket, praising Professor Snape for teaching him that spell early.

He put his leg around on his broom and kicked off from the ground, the wind flying in his hair. He didn't know how long it would take to get to the Manor, but all he was thinking about was finding Ginny and holding her in his arms.

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny lay on her bed, her face sore as well as her arms and her stomach. Her left eye was swollen up and wouldn't open properly, and her brain was working at a very slow pace. She felt completely miserable as she cuddled up closer to the silk sheets and clutched her pillow. The grandfather clock from the family room suddenly struck.

It was midnight.

Nothing was heard in the Manor, which was normal as usual, but something was very scary about it and Ginny's room was pitch-black. The wind outside blew loudly against Ginny's window and she closed her eyes and thought about… Draco. Hadn't he noticed that she was gone?

Ginny doubted if _anyone _noticed she was gone, including the fact that people rarely noticed her whether she was passing through the corridors or talking with her friends in the Great Hall. No, excuse me, her _ex_-friends.

'Remember that,' Ginny thought to herself. Those good-for-nothing girls got her into this… yes, that was it… it's all their fault…

Suddenly, making Ginny snap up from her bed, footsteps started coming down the hall.

&&&&&&&&&&

"Hello?" Draco whispered into the family room, which was now very dark. The moonlight was peeping into the room, making it look like a dungeon. Draco sighed as no one answered and silently closed the door.

That was the fourth room he had looked into and no one was there. He was beginning to feel like a fool searching through his own home, and more importantly, he was very suspicious as to where his father was.

Draco then heard someone very quietly sniff to the door at his left. His eyes slowly made its way to the doorknob and he opened the door to its fullest extent.

This room was darker than any others, so Draco took out his wand.

"_Lumos_," he muttered. He was surprised to see that it was his very own room, how could he have forgotten? Draco looked around, the light of his wand flying everywhere.

Draco then heard a small moan escape from the bed. He immediately pointed his wand at it, and couldn't believe whom he saw.

"Ginny?" he said, and the figure turned its head so that Draco saw its face.

"Draco!" Ginny exclaimed, and she practically jumped out of the bed and dashed straight to him. Draco dropped his wand and took her in his arms tightly, stroking her read hair. He almost thought a tear had sprung out of his eye, but he quickly wiped it away so Ginny wouldn't see.

"I thought I would never see you again," she murmured into his chest, and… she started to cry very quietly. Draco took her head so that they were looking at each other and he kissed several of the tears that were running down her pink cheeks. He then saw her swollen eyes and looked down at her arms; they were bruised in many different places and she even had a large cut by her elbow.

Draco cursed in rage.

"What did he do to you?" he asked, picking up her limp arm and examining it. Fear was stirring in Ginny's eyes and she started to cry again, this time much harder than before. She put her head in her hands and just pitifully sobbed. Draco felt so sorry for her, how could he have let this happen? He once again took Ginny in his arms and rubbed her back tenderly as he kissed her flaming red hair.

"I'm here now, Ginny," he told her softly. "That's why I came. To take you back to Hogwarts."

Ginny looked up at him with watery eyes, looking confused.

"How did you find me?"

Draco swallowed and took her hand.

"That's not important," he said. "We just have to get out of here before my father finds us…"

Ginny nodded and, tiptoeing, they both left the room and went into the hall, Draco in the lead.

The first thing Draco noticed about the hall was that it seemed darker than when he went into Ginny's room. The moonlight had faded away, leaving a dull-cast shadow on their skins.

"How did you get here?" Ginny whispered, but Draco hushed her by putting his finger on his mouth to show her not to talk.

Ginny nodded again and they kept going down the hall.

Ahead was the entrance hall, and soon the two of them would be flying back to Hogwarts on Draco's broomstick…

There was a sudden loud _crack! _behind them and they both whipped around to see…

&&&&&&&&&&

A house elf. It looked female with small ears and a small, tiny little nose, and it was wearing a tablecloth.

"Who are you?" Ginny asked loudly, forgetting that she was supposed to be escaping.

Before the house elf could say a word, Draco stepped in front and the house elf started to tremble.

"Get back to your work," he ordered it. "Now."

"Yes, master," the little house elf said in a trembling sort of squeak. It curtsied and then hurriedly dashed off, not looking back. Draco sighed and looked at Ginny in what seemed to be relief and started moving on, grabbing Ginny's hand.

"Who was that?" she said.

"Kora. She's the little baby house elf, no one bothers talking to her," Draco answered. The Manor was getting darker as the moon settled behind several dark clouds. Draco turned right and Ginny followed, and they found that they were at the entrance, two giant mahogany doors standing right in front of them.

Draco reached for the doorknob.

"Leaving, are you?" said a cold voice to their left. The two of them gasped and dread crept into their veins as their eyes met with another pair.

Lucius stood there in the shadows, a strip of moonlight showing only his face. He smirked nastily and played with his leather gloves. His eyes trailed from Draco to Ginny and he admired the bruises he had left before slowly advancing.

Draco did not say a word, or move, for that matter. He was frozen to the ground; he didn't dare move a step forward or back, not even to the side.

"I don't suppose you care to think about what you're doing, Draco," Lucius muttered. He started walking further towards them, and Draco shifted in front of Ginny to hide her from his father's view.

"Don't associate with filth like her," said Lucius, noticing Draco's movement. His voice had reached something of a whisper. "Become a Death Eater like your dear old dad."

"Never," he said coldly. "I'd rather die than follow in your footsteps."

Lucius gave him a very long glare before speaking again.

"You're pathetic," he said, his mouth barely opening. He then regained his composure and a smile arose from his pale face. "Let's pretend that you somehow end up married and happily ever after, shall we?"

Ginny squeezed Draco's hand.

"Then what?" said Lucius. "Do you really want to live your life being a househusband? Do you really want to waste everything I've ever given you, everything this family has ever worked for? Do you want that, Draco? A meaningless life, only accompanied by a poor, nagging wife and bratty children to annoyingly hang onto your ankles?"

"I do," Draco spat.

Lucius chuckled a bit before deciding to pull his wand out.

"So be it."

Draco nervously fumbled around his pockets before he realized he had left his wand on the floor in his room when he found Ginny. He swallowed as Lucius laughed pitilessly.

"Maybe after this you would've wished you listened to me, my boy," Lucius told him, and he arched his wand.

"_Avada Kedavra_!" he shouted. Draco took Ginny and they fell to the floor, barely dodging the spell that went whizzing by them, hitting a large vase that exploded into dust.

Lucius sighed in exasperation. "Get up, Draco," he said.

Draco swallowed again and slowly started to get to his feet. "Don't move," he whispered to Ginny, and she reluctantly remained on the wooden floor, her teeth chattering and her heart racing.

Draco looked at Lucius and tension hung like fog in the air. Father and son stood across from one another, seeing the other's mangled death in their minds, both trying to think of what to do next.

As quick as a flash, Draco turned around and took off at a run down the hall.

Lucius' eyes widened and his temple throbbed dangerously. "COME BACK HERE!" he bellowed, and he started to run after him.

Draco was sprinting as fast as he could down the hall, almost running into a small house elf on the way.

"Oof!" yelled the house elf as it fell inside a doorway.

Draco just kept going. He had this planned out, but he was not sure if it would work… oh, please let it work…

At the end of the hall he turned right and at the end of this hall was the kitchen. He dashed to the counter and hid himself behind it, tucking his legs in and saying a silent prayer.

After about three seconds, Draco heard a loud screech against the kitchen tile as his father's boots skidded to a halt. Footsteps echoed off the white marble, sounding as if they were very near.

"I know you're in here," Lucius called out. "I have the girl, and she will die if you do not."

Draco stayed where he was and ever so slowly peeked over the counter. Lucius was pulling Ginny's hair and dragging her along like a helpless puppet as she struggled to get free. Luckily, while his father was looking the other way, Draco silently pulled a long, sharp carving knife out of the drawer. He hid it behind his back and stood up.

"Over here," he murmured, and Lucius whipped around. He grinned evilly at his son and started walking towards him, leaving Ginny sitting on the floor. Shaking, she looked up at Draco, eyes filled with tears, not knowing whether to make a move or stay put.

"Why hello, Draco," Lucius replied. A kind of manic glint was in his eye, and Draco's head was pounding at the thought of what he was about to do…

Draco took a few steps forward and him and Lucius were now about two inches apart. Lucius raised his wand…

"_Avada Ke_-"

"NO!" cried Ginny out of nowhere.

Lucius turned to look at her for a fraction of a second and Draco reacted in an instant. He took out the carving knife and plunged it into his father's stomach.

Ginny screamed loudly.

"Go to hell, _father_," Draco muttered, their noses almost touching. Lucius stared at him with glassy gray eyes and looked down, his hands grazing the knife in his abdomen. Draco watched in slow motion as he fell to his knees and then collapsed onto the floor, completely limp.

There was absolute silence in the air. Both Ginny and Draco watched Lucius' body involuntarily twitch until he was completely still, and not but the sun could feel what they were feeling at that exact moment.

Ginny steadily got up off the floor, feeling as if she could faint at any second. Her entire body was numb; she felt like she had been paralyzed from the neck down. She walked to Draco's side and put her hand on his arm as lightly as she could, trying not to surprise him.

"Is… is he dead?" she said slowly.

Draco was in shock. His breath was shaky, his jaw was hanging, and the tears in his eyes began to fall. It was almost like a dream; how could he have been in it? How could it have been real?

"I – I just killed my own father," he said quietly. He turned to Ginny.

Neither of them said a word as they embraced tightly. Ginny stroked Draco's back comfortingly and Draco put his head atop of hers, trying not to cry. He was a Malfoy, Goddamnit. And he had never remotely loved his father... so what was this feeling? For an eternity they stood there, holding onto each other, waiting. For what, they didn't know. An answer, maybe. What was going to happen? When was it going to?

After what seemed like an hour, their connection was broken when two people came scurrying into the kitchen, both of them gasping as they saw Lucius, dead on the floor, lying in a large puddle of blood. They both looked at Draco and Ginny, their eyes wide.

Ginny turned around and gasped, putting her hands to her mouth.

"You?" Draco said as he saw Blanc du Gris standing there, looking stunned. She covered her mouth and shook her head frantically. The other girl, however, eyed the two of them resentfully. And when Ginny's tear-filled eyes focused a bit more, she saw horrible reality standing right in front of her.

"Heidi?"


	16. Confessions

A/N: Duuuude. I can't believe I actually wrote what I did in the last chapter. Man, didn't that like… make you choke to death? Haha… no. Anyways. Here's chapter sixteen, my darlings.

BTW: I should warn you… more shocks to come. Just so you know.

Chapter Sixteen: Confessions

Ginny stared at Heidi for a considerably long time. The four of them were just standing there, not one of them had anything to say.

Draco was finally the first one to speak.

"You were in on this? How?"

He said it in a cold voice, much colder than his father's, which was saying something.

Heidi's eyes quickly averted over to Draco with his arms around Ginny, his eyes glaring straight at her like nothing else. She smirked slightly.

"It's really not that hard to explain," Heidi said, looking pleased. She stared down at Lucius for a bit and sighed dramatically, and Ginny noticed that she probably did not feel one little drop of sympathy for him and his death.

Heidi stepped over his body and shook her head, laughing.

"I saw your father sneaking around at Hogwarts, Draco," she told him, as if it were completely obvious. Blanc was still standing beside Lucius's body, her eye twitching.

"He was always following you and Ginny, most likely spying to see what you did with each other. It wasn't much, as he told me, but I knew that he would do _anything _to split you apart."

Heidi put a heavy amount of emphasis on the word 'anything'.

Ginny swallowed and started breathing rapidly. Draco's arms tightened around her waist and she became calm again, knowing that he was there to protect her.

Heidi looked at both of them and laughed somewhat shrilly. Ginny's hairs stood on end from this laugh, same with Draco's.

"Heidi, you're _really _scaring me," said Ginny, her eyes wide. Heidi stopped laughing.

"I'll be scaring you a lot more when you're begging for mercy," she muttered, and she got out her wand. Ginny screamed but Draco got another knife from the counter and poised it, ready to strike.

Heidi stared up at the knife and seemed to be amused.

"You're not going to kill me, Draco," she said. "I'm too much to kill."

Draco knitted his eyebrows in confusion and pursed his lips.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" he asked. Ginny was now silent in his arms.

"You know what I'm saying. Unlike your father, I mean something to you. Remember what it was like last year, Draco?" she laughed again, but this time much quieter and colder.

Draco swallowed and Ginny looked up at him.

"What is she talking about?" she said tentatively. Draco's eyes melted with hers and all of the sudden… none of it was real. Not Ginny, not Heidi, not his father lying on the ground dead. Not even Blanc, who plopped down onto a chair and started rubbing her eyes furiously.

This was all a dream. No. A nightmare, more like it. Yes, that was it. Draco would wake up any second in his dormitory sweating and clutching onto his pillow.

But it _was _real, and Draco had to answer the question. Or rather, Heidi answered it for him.

"Didn't you know, Ginny?" she murmured, suddenly looking off dreamily into the distance. "Draco and I were… could you say… more than just friends."

&&&&&&&&&&

Ginny wasn't going to believe this. No, she simply wasn't going to. It was just rubbish, the whole thing.

Heidi and Draco?

_Together_?

"Ginny, she's lying, don't listen to her, we didn't even do anything -" Draco started quickly, but Heidi cut him off with a sharp tone in her voice.

"Don't think for one second that you can fool your dear _Virginia_," she interrupted. "She knows more than you think."

Ginny's eyes started watering as she released herself from Draco's arms and glared at him.

"_What did you do_?" she said. Draco swallowed again and looked straight at her.

"Nothing," he told her, but Ginny wasn't going to fall easily at his feet.

"_Nothing_?" she repeated, smiling awkwardly. "You think I'm actually going to _believe _you, Draco?"

Draco immediately took Ginny's hands but she pushed him away.

"Don't toy around with my brain, now, I've had enough of this! Tell me the truth!" she yelled loudly.

Draco sighed exasperatedly and sat down on a stool by the counter, running a hand through his hair. He seemed to be torn between telling her - and then not.

He look up at Ginny and saw that her face was turning redder by the minute.

"Look, we didn't - _go all the way_ - we just - you know - fooled around a bit…"

"_Fooled around a bit_?" Ginny said, her voice shaking. She was just about to explode at any second.

"You know what I mean," Draco said a few notches above a whisper, and unexpectedly, Ginny burst out into tears.

Draco shot off his stool and went over to her but she backed away, wiping away her cheeks.

"Stop," she whispered. She looked up at him with red eyes filled with tears and Draco was on the verge of going into tears himself. He knew what was about to come next, she was going to leave him right there.

"Aw, Ginny, dear, don't cry now," Heidi said soothingly, rubbing Ginny's back. Ginny didn't seem to take notice of this and just stayed where she was. Out of the blue, she started swaying at the spot.

"That's it…" said Heidi in an airy voice, much like Professor Trelawney's. "Just relax…"

Then, suddenly, Ginny closed her eyes and fell to the ground, completely stiff.

Draco's eyes bulged and he rushed toward her. Bending down, he lightly put his hand on one of her pale cheeks.

"What did you do to her?!" he shouted, standing back up and towering over Heidi as her head went back.

"Oh, be quiet, now," she said softly, smiling. "All I put in my hand was a simple sleeping powder."

Draco was infuriated.

"HOW? We were watching you the entire time!" he exclaimed, waving his arms around like a maniac.

"No, no, no, Draco, _you _were watching me the entire time," she muttered. "And ever hear of sleeves these days?"

Draco huffed and started to walk out of the kitchen, rushing to his room.

It was time to settle the matter of Heidi once and for all.

He opened the door to his room and was surprised to find that all of he candles were suddenly lit, every single one of them from wall to wall, even up on the ceiling. It was definitely odd, but Draco thought nothing of it and picked his wand up off the floor and closed the door behind him.

He walked quickly to the kitchen again and it was the same as ever, Blanc on the same chair as before, Ginny on the tiles right next to his father, and Heidi sharpening her nails on the stool Draco was sitting on before.

"Oh, Draco, don't think I don't know your wand is right behind your back," she muttered, not even looking at him.

Draco stopped where he was and snarled.

"You think you're so smart," he said to her menacingly.

Heidi finally looked at him and rolled her eyes.

"That's because I am," she said simply. With Heidi's cynical attitude, Draco was getting angrier by the minute.

He took out his wand from behind his back and Heidi smirked maliciously.

"What are you going to do?" she asked. "Kill me like you did with the knife?"

"That's what I plan on doing," Draco spat. Heidi's smirk grew and she got off the stool, walking up to Draco who reluctantly stayed where he was. She put her hands on his chest and stared into his eyes.

Draco didn't know exactly what to do. He could've killed Heidi right there, blasting her to pieces. But no… he couldn't. What was happening?

"You can't kill me, remember?" she whispered, stroking his left cheek. "You love me."

Draco was in a world of emotions, not knowing if this was real or not, not knowing where he was, who he was, who Ginny was, where his brain slipped to…

All he knew was that he wanted to kiss Heidi right there. Her lips were shining with her sweet saliva, warm and succulent.

Draco inclined his head and kissed her with fire, taking her hair and backing her up to the wall. All he wanted was Heidi, every bit of her, right down to her little toes.

Wait…

What was he doing?

He suddenly stopped and Heidi giggled very girlishly.

"What's the matter, darling? Have you had enough of me?" she said.

Draco let go of her and put his wand up.

"_Avada Kedavra!_" he yelled, and the spell hit Heidi right in her abdomen.

Something wasn't right.

Heidi… she wasn't… she wasn't… _dead_.

Draco looked confusedly at his wand and back at Heidi, who was now laughing quietly.

"Didn't I say you couldn't kill me?" she told him.

"But…" Draco started. This _was _a dream.

Heidi laughed again, turned around, and walked back to her stool, sitting down.

"It's obvious, isn't it, Draco? _You can't kill me_."

Her voice had a distinguished superior tone about it, as if Draco should've figured this out a long time ago.

Draco himself just stood there, staring at her. He had no idea what to do or what to say. All of this remained a mystery to him, and sooner or later something had to happen.

"Then I'll kill you by hand," he said bitterly, and he bent down to his father, taking the knife out of his stomach. Shame washed over him as Lucius's blood, encrusted on the knife, gleamed in the light.

He stood up and looked at Heidi forebodingly, raising the knife.

"I will," Draco said. Heidi's eyes had pools of worry in them, ready to spring up.

"Wait a minute here…" she started, slowly sliding off the stool and inching away from Draco, who was poising the knife in the air. He had her now.

"Draco, you c-can't… stop… you're scaring me…" she was now in the corner of the wall, shrinking to the floor. Draco was coming nearer; he looked like some maniac killer from a horror film.

"You took Ginny," Draco said, his eyes narrowed. "You made her cry ---"

"No, Draco, _you _made her cry!" Heidi shrieked, her eyes blinded by tears. She was breathing very hard. Draco stopped where he was and lowered the knife, setting it down on the counter. He sat down on the kitchen tiles, his head in his hands.

"What are you talking about?" he said quietly.

Heidi's breathing suddenly slowed down and she leaned toward him.

"You know what I'm talking about, Draco," she said. Her voice was all of the sudden soft and airy again.

Draco peered through one of his hands at her. She wasn't that far away from him now, maybe two feet. Her face looked wretched, and her eyes were a piercing red.

"What if I _don't_?" Draco said.

Heidi glared at him and sniffed.

"All you're doing is blaming me," she snarled. "Really, this is all of _your _bloodyfault, not mine."

Draco took his head out of his hands and scowled at her. He couldn't believe she was actually saying something so far fetched.

"How so?" he asked, turning around to her. "All you've been doing is making things worse."

Heidi chuckled at the floor and looked over at Ginny. Draco looked at her as well and saw that she was waking up, dazed.

"Mmm…" she mumbled, slowly getting off of the kitchen tiles. She looked around, bewildered, and saw Draco staring at her. She gave him a nasty sort of look, got up, and started walking quickly out of the kitchen as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

"Ginny!" Draco yelled, and he got up as well, but Heidi caught his ankle and he tripped, falling flat on his face.

"Ow," he muttered into the floor, and he looked up to see Heidi laughing again.

"When will you ever learn, Draco?" she said coldly. "You've lost her."

That was it. Heidi was enough. Draco couldn't kill her, but he could do something more… something…

He raised his wand…

"_Obliviate_!" he shouted. Heidi's eyes widened and she was forcefully thrown to the kitchen wall as Draco shielded his eyes. As he looked back up again, Heidi was sliding down to the floor, her mouth bleeding to the side. She was knocked out cold.

Suddenly, Ginny came running back into the room wearing her cloak. She looked at Heidi and screamed loudly, covering her mouth.

"Ginny, I -"

"Heidi!" Ginny cried, running over to her. She put her fingers on Heidi's neck and slowly stood back up, turning around to face Draco.

"_What did you do to her_?" she murmured, her teeth pressed together and her eyes narrowed at him. Draco glanced at Heidi.

"She - she's dead?" he asked incredulously. Ginny rolled her eyes at him and scowled.

"No, of course not," she told him. "But she could've been."

"Oh," Draco said. He swallowed. There was silence.

"Draco, what made you think you could do something like that?" she exclaimed suddenly, making Draco jump.

"Well I…"

"Well you… what?" Ginny snapped at him. Draco swallowed once more, unsure of what to say. Here was Ginny, well again, screaming in his face when he had come just to rescue her.

"I'm sorry."

Draco said it so quietly that Ginny raised her eyebrows and peered at him.

"You're what?" she whispered. Draco looked straight into her dark eyes and melted into them.

"I'm sorry, okay? Is that what you want? For me to be sorry?" he said, louder this time. "Because if you ask me, she got what she deserved, I think. You know, you should be _grateful _right now, I'm doing all of this for you, and then you come barging in shouting right to me when all I wanted was you and all _you_ wanted was to believe Heidi. I mean, Ginny, would you believe Heidi or your own boyfriend? Some people just don't -"

Ginny's lips crushing against his suddenly cut him off mid-sentence, her hands cupping both of his flushed cheeks. She slowly backed away and put a strand of hair behind one of his ears, smiling.

"I know why you did it," she told him.

Draco looked at her solemnly and took her hands, kissing them delicately.

"For you," he said.

There was a sudden shifting noise to the right of them, and both of them whipped their heads toward the entrance of the kitchen.

Blanc was now standing, her eyes red and watery from rubbing them so much. For what reason, Draco and Ginny did not know. They had not even noticed her earlier; they had been focusing more on Heidi.

"Where am I?" she said, looking around in fear. Her glassy eyes were swiveling in every direction, as if trying to recognize where she was at the time.

Ginny turned her head back at Draco, confused, and he half-shrugged. The two of them had no idea what was going on, nor did they really _want _to know.

&&&&&&&&&&

Blanc was now staring at the two of them and they stared back. No one spoke.

"W-What's going on?" Blanc said, her voice completely cracked. "Why is zis man dead? Who killed 'im? What's 'appening?"

Her voice was now growing louder, and she was panicking. Ginny walked forward to her and took her by the shoulders, looking at her straight in the eye.

"You mean you don't know where you've been this whole time?" Ginny said. All of this was rather confusing to her.

Blanc was not looking at Ginny, but still examining the kitchen. She was blinking constantly, as if her eyes were still adjusting to everything.

"Heidi and I were in zis room a few hours ago," she muttered, and Ginny quickly glanced at Draco before turning back to Blanc.

"A few hours ago?" she said, slightly wincing. That was when Lucius had tortured her when she had gotten Fred's letter and Lucius had seen.

"Yes," Blanc whispered, and she finally looked at Ginny. "I… I think I remember."

"Remember what?" Ginny said hastily, her grip on Blanc's shoulders becoming firmer. "What is it, Blanc?"

Blanc's eyes were watery again, but she did not say anything. Then Ginny had figured it out. How could she have been so daft to not notice? The strange, sudden amnesia, rubbing of the eyes, and then remembering everything all over again was definitely imposing as a sort of sign.

"Blanc, were you… were you under the Imperius Curse?" said Ginny in a hushed voice. Blanc looked off into the distance, her eyebrows all the way up to her silky brown hair.

"I… maybe… oh, I can't think."

She clasped her forehead and sat back down in the chair she had been sitting in, rubbing her eyes again. Ginny looked back at Draco, who shrugged confusedly. Ginny sighed and turned back to Blanc.

"You can come back to Hogwarts with me and Draco," she told her forcefully. "We'll tell Dumbledore everything."

"And what do you mean by everything?" Draco suddenly butted in, walking up to Ginny and taking her by the shoulders like she had done with Blanc.

"I mean…" Ginny said quietly. "The truth."

"THE TRUTH?" shouted Draco, and Ginny jumped. Draco let go of her shoulders. "TELL HIM I MURDERED MY OWN FATHER? ARE YOU MAD, GINNY?"

"Well what else are we supposed to say? The knife _slipped_?" Ginny yelled back. Both of them were breathing hard, as if they had been fighting like this for hours. Ginny calmed down slowly and stepped closer to Draco, whispering.

"Look… there's nothing else to do. You have to turn yourself in… it's the only way," she said. Draco sighed, his eyes on the ground rather than on Ginny.

"What if I never see you again?" he muttered. Ginny swallowed slowly and her eyes started getting damp again.

"At least I'll know what you did for me," she told him, and she made him looked at her. His cheeks were completely white; you could tell that he was scared. The two of them stared at each other for an eternity before Blanc spoke.

"I do not understand," she said loudly, and Draco and Ginny broke apart. "Zis Hogwarts… I do not go zere. I go to Beauxbatons, and I demand to see Madame Maxime at once!"

"Calm down, Blanc, we're trying to figure this out," Ginny assured her, walking over and putting a hand on her back.

"No!" Blanc yelled, pushing Ginny's hand away. Ginny looked frightened by Blanc's sudden behavior. "_Je veux aller à la maison! Prenez-moi la maison_! _En ce moment_!"

"Blanc, _calm down_!" Ginny shrieked, but Blanc was getting restless. She was flinging her arms around and screaming her lungs out, trying to get away from Ginny. Draco tried to come in between them, but Blanc's sharp nails kept going at him and she had eventually scratched his elbow.

"Ow," he said for the second time that night, putting his hand over the tiny scratch. He blew a huge raspberry at her and chuckled to himself.

"DRACO! STOP ACTING LIKE A BABY AND HELP ME!" Ginny bellowed, her voice echoing throughout the kitchen.

Draco didn't answer as he saw Blanc getting even more violent; she was kicking and screaming and pulling at Ginny's hair like there was no tomorrow.

"Calm down!" Ginny shrieked once again. Blanc opened her eyes, which had been closed shut, and looked at her with rage.

She cried piercingly and hit Ginny, hard, in the face.

There was sudden silence. The moonlight in the room was dimming, and there was complete darkness. Heidi was slightly stirring, but otherwise no sound was heard.

Ginny did not say anything at first. She had clasped her cheek in which Blanc had hit and had an incredulous look on her face. Slowly she took her hand away from her cheek, which was now as red as her hair, and her face was serious.

"We are to leave now," she said softly, and she glanced over at Draco. She then turned on her heel and rushed out of the kitchen, her robes trailing behind her and her fiery hair whipping every which way.

Draco started walking in her direction, but Blanc stopped him suddenly. Her eyes were red as they were before, and they looked as if they could explode.

"Draco…" she murmured. "I was not under ze Imperius Curse."

«´¨·. ¸. . ¸. ·´»«´·. ¸. . ¸. ·´¨»«´·. ¸. . ¸. ·´¨»«´·. ¸. . ¸. ·´¨»«´·. ¸. . ¸. ·´¨»

A/N: Aaaaaaack. This chapter was VERY hard to write, mind you. Sorry I took so long. Man… I'm tired now. Sorry, no individual responses for reviews, but THANK YOU FOR EVERYONE THAT WROTE ME ONE!

**_NOW GO WRITE ME ANOTHER!!_**

-goob-


	17. Forgive Me Draco, For I Have Sinned

A/N: I know, I know… I've taken like nine years to actually write this. I've been having troubles in school and have had a lot of homework, but I've written this as painstakingly as I can. Thanks for waiting, it means a lot to me. :-)

Chapter Seventeen: Forgive Me Draco, For I Have Sinned

Draco couldn't believe his ears when he heard this. He looked back where Ginny had exited and was deciding whether or not to go after her.

"Don't," Blanc told him, and he sighed in frustration. He stared at her in wrath, almost growling.

"So you were in on this whole thing willingly?" he muttered. "What, just because I don't like you, you want to ruin my life instead by kidnapping the girl I love and trying to kill her?"

Blanc looked at the ground as she slowly sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, putting her hands in her hair.

"No…" she said. Draco whipped his head toward her. "Your fozzer blackmailed me saying zat if I did not join 'im and Heidi, zen my chances of living were completely extinct."

"_What_?" Draco said incredulously. "My father threatened to _kill _you?"

Draco sat down in the chair next to her, listening intently to what she had to say. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that his father's body had suddenly vanished, but he was not paying attention to that at the moment.

"I knew about your and Ginny's relationship ze entire time," Blanc told him in her heavy French accent, obviously not seeing what Draco saw. "In ze morning when I was walking to ze Owlery, I saw you and 'er in ze Charms room holding hands and hugging and kissing and all of zat."

Blanc sighed and, rather than looking at Draco, she spoke to her hands that were placed on the table.

"I was very jealous. After you refused me and went for her, I sought - _thought _– I thought it was after all a good idea to do what Lucius 'ad told me to do."

Draco closed his eyes and sighed furiously, banging the table with his hand.

"So this is all because of jealousy? Is that it, Blanc?" he said with almost gritted teeth, his fingernails digging into his palms.

Blanc put one of her hands on his and looked at him seriously.

"Draco… I am a veela."

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco's eyes widened.

"What -"

"Eight years ago, when I was nine, my muzzer taught me all about ze veela culture and 'ow I was special because I could fool anyone into sinking – _thinking_ - I was a normal girl while actually I could persuade zem, make zem do sings for me… _things_, I mean things… while zey never knew what hit zem."

"Wait a minute…" Draco started, getting this all straightened out. "How could you be a veela? You have dark hair and green eyes and you are almost even dark-skinned –"

"Zat is my point, Draco," Blanc said exasperatedly. "I am special because even zough I am a veela, no one can know except for when I tell zem. Heidi… she is a veela as well."

"WHAT -"

"Now, Draco, let me finish," Blanc said over him. "Veela cannot die by magic, and zat is why she kept saying zat you could not kill 'er. She lured you into sinking zat you – _thinking _– thinking zat you loved her and not Ginny. A veela can also put someone to sleep by rubbing a sensitive part of ze skin, like Ginny's back. She told you zat she had a sleeping powder so zat she would not reveal 'erself."

Draco did not know what to say. This whole time he had been hoodwinked by none other than a veela, he had believed her, he had loved her last year… and it was all fake. He was enraged.

"Look, Blanc, I'm sorry… but I have to go find Ginny," he told her, and getting up so angrily that he knocked over his chair, he started running out of the kitchen.

"Giiiiiiny…" he said, calling out. At once, Ginny opened Draco's bedroom door, first poking her head out, then opening the door wide enough so that she was all the way out of the room.

"What do _you _want?" she snapped crossly, folding her arms and glaring at him. Draco noticed that she had been doing a lot of this lately, but didn't object.

"Listen… I need to tell you something, whether you like it or not," he told her. Ginny just looked at him, clearly confused. It was somehow still dark outside, but from the large window set in the hallway, you could see the sun steadily rising. Ginny sighed and watched the sun ascending into the pink sky, thinking. She turned back to Draco.

"What's so important?" she said softly. She leaned on the doorway, arms still folded across her chest. The sun rose higher.

Draco slowly let out a breath and told Ginny everything Blanc had told him. The blackmail, the veela, Heidi, this whole thing… Ginny looked as outraged as he did when he was told this just minutes before.

"I cannot believe this," she whispered, sinking more onto the doorway on which she leaning.

"Well, it's the truth," Draco said. Rather uncertainly, he muttered, "D'you… do you think we should go back now? To Hogwarts, I mean?"

"We can't just leave Blanc here," Ginny said at once.

"I know, I meant we can take her with us," said Draco. Ginny rolled her eyes at him in irritation.

"How are we supposed to fit three people on your broom?" she exclaimed.

"Maybe we can go there in a different way… we could owl Dumbledore… or… or ask Professor McGonagall to send transportation," Draco suggested hopefully.

"No…" Ginny said, scratching below her bottom lip. "We'll ask Harry."

Almost immediately, Draco let out a cry between a scowl and a snarl.

"_Potter_?" he spat loathingly. "Are you serious?"

"The only thing keeping us from becoming rumors once again is him," said Ginny in haste, her eyes now on Draco. "He's the only student in the school who knows about us, other than Taryn and them… but believe this, after what happened to me, I doubt they'll tell anyone."

"So…" Draco started. "What are we going to do? Wait for him?"

"No," Ginny repeated. "You'll take Blanc back to the castle. I'll send him an owl to come for me."

"My owl's in my room on my drawers, you can use him; I guess I forgot to bring him back when term started -"

"Alright," said Ginny.

Draco was thinking about what might Potter's reaction be once he got the Ginny's letter not yet written. Would he simply ignore it and throw it away? Would he not get it at all?

He attempted to voice his thoughts.

"Ginny, what if -"

"Draco," she interrupted him suddenly in a low voice, taking his arms calmly. "Don't worry. Everything will be _fine_." She almost made to kiss him, but instead reached down and handed Draco his broom and trunk that had been right beside her on the floor; he had not seen either of them before now.

"If anything weird happens when Potter gets here," Draco said in worry, "just run right away. Here, why don't we do some kind of charm so that you can call me if you're in danger or something…"

"Draco," Ginny interrupted once more, this time louder. She put his hands on his shoulders. "I'll be _fine_. It's not as if Harry's a mass murderer. Everything will be okay." She then circled her arms around his neck gently and hugged him. Draco wasn't expecting this. He thought she was mad at him, but he was obviously wrong. He kissed her lightly on the lips.

"I'd better go write the letter to Harry. You won't be able to make it back soon enough to tell him, so I'll tell him myself," Ginny said. "It'll be faster, I think."

She half-grinned sheepishly and set off toward the kitchen, her wand clutched in her hand. Draco followed her and found Blanc still sitting at the kitchen table with her head down. It seemed as if she was sleeping.

"Blanc," chanted Ginny, patting the girl on the shoulder. Blanc's head gradually stirred, and she looked up at Ginny and Draco standing over her with squinted eyes, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, bonjour," she said tiredly, stretching out her arms with a huge yawn. Ginny smiled awkwardly at her, perhaps afraid that Blanc would start going mad again, but acted as if nothing had happened.

"Erm – Draco will be taking you back to Hogwarts," said Ginny swiftly. "Don't worry, he'll direct you where to go once you arrive." She turned to Draco, and he looked down on her. "You remember where Professor Dumbledore's office is, right? And the password as well?"

He nodded silently as Ginny smiled.

"Good," she said. Hesitantly, in front of Blanc, she kissed Draco once more. "Do be careful, will you?"

Draco nodded again, making Ginny's smile widen, and then turned to Blanc, who had just stood up from her chair abruptly.

"Are you ready? Did you bring anything?" he asked. Blanc's eyes wandered around, then she looked back at Draco.

"Just my wand, I sink – _think_." She scrunched her eyes together and made a frustrated sort of growl. "Just my wand, I _think_." She took it out of her robes and showed it to Ginny and Draco.

"We should be leaving now," Draco said. He gave Ginny one last hug before putting his hand on Blanc's back, directing her out of the kitchen.

"'Bye," Ginny called out, and Draco and Blanc disappeared. After about ten seconds she heard the front door open and then slam shut. She put her hands on her hips, clearly thinking about what to do next.

"Now, where's me some parchment?…"

&&&&&&&&&&__

..::_Dear Harry,_

_I bet you're wondering where I am… you'll never guess. The Malfoy Manor. Strange, isn't it? I promise that the next time I see you I'll tell you _everything_, but for now I'm afraid I can't. Could you – I know this is odd, but – fly here on your Firebolt and take me back to Hogwarts? Please do not ask me any questions until you come and get me, Harry, because I'm trying to get out of here as quickly as possible. Seeing as you are the only thread of hope that has committed me to ask you this dire favor, I can't think of anyone else. Not even Ron would understand what is going on, and I hope you will. Draco and Blanc du Gris are on their way to Hogwarts right now, you might see them, I am not sure. I know you don't know where the Malfoy Manor is, but neither do I, actually…I was thinking that perhaps you could perform a Tracking Spell to get directions… if you don't know it, all you have to do is say '_Lerufit Dormor Tarifico_', then you say the place (just say '_The Malfoy Manor_', I'm sure it will work) and some piece of parchment appears and tells you where it is and how to get there and everything… it's really not that complicated, I could tell you all about it if you like. They invented the spell in 1383 when a convict was on the loose and they knew where he was but they didn't know how to get there so they performed the spell and then caught him in – why the bloody hell am I babbling on about Tracking Spells? Anyway, please consider this as a plea of help, and I hope you have it in your heart to understand._

_Yours truly,_

_Ginny_::..

"No," Ginny said simply, and she crumpled the letter up and threw it in the trashcan beside her.

"'Scuse, madam…" she heard something squeak behind her. Ginny whipped around, frightened, to find that it was only the little house elf Kora. "Do ye need help gedding back to Hogwarts?"

"Yes," said Ginny, stunned. "How did you?…"

"Follow me, dear," Kora sighed, and started walking out of the kitchen where Ginny was in. Confusedly, Ginny got up from her chair and followed the house elf, which was leading her down the same hall in which last night Draco and Lucius had been fighting. The ashes of the vase Lucius had cursed were now a vase again.

"Keep on going dere, darling," said Kora. Ginny hustled to keep up, and suddenly, Kora turned right into a small door that Ginny stared at. It was about up to her waist.

"Er – I can't fit through that," she told the house elf, but Kora pulled her arm so that she had to get on her knees and crawl through the door.

What Ginny saw made her gasp.

She was looking into a small, cramped room filled with tiny little beds, small enough to hold babies in. They were all around, and different house elves were sleeping in them. Some beds were empty, and Ginny expected that those house elves were cleaning upstairs or around the Manor.

"Where we basically live," Kora said, smiling barely any teeth. She looked up at Ginny with a serious look. "I shall get the odders," she whispered, and she went to the back of the tiny room where a group of house elves were gathered around talking quietly to one another. When Kora tapped one of them on the shoulder, a small female about her size, she pointed to Ginny. The other house elf looked at Ginny, smiled, and then walked over with Kora.

"This is Jink," Kora told her. "My sitter."

"You're – what?"

"My sitter!" repeated Kora, louder this time, still smiling. "We was raised in the same family, mes and Jink."

"Oh… _sister_," Ginny said, grinning. "Sister."

Jink had a round, plump face with pointy ears like Kora's, and the same pointy nose. She was only about an inch taller than Kora and was wearing a shower curtain that was made like a dress of some sort. She actually had dark brown hair that was down to her small shoulders.

"How do," she said, her voice high and filled with glee. Jink curtsied low to the floor, holding out her shower curtain dress.

"Erm… hello," said Ginny rather awkwardly.

"My, what an honor 'tis to have such a guest," Jink beamed at Ginny, who shifted slightly. She was feeling very uncomfortable around so many house elves that were likely to be a little more than three feet shorter than her.

"We shall help you find a way out, miss," Kora told her, and the two elves started towards the short little door in which Ginny crawled through once again.

In the hallway, as they watched Jink climb out last, Kora took Ginny's hand and walked in the separate direction of the hall Draco's room was in. The hall they were in was lined with old pictures and several doors left and right.

"Now, where is dat closet…?" muttered Kora to herself, looking around. She spotted a door to her left that was embroidered with serpents and breathed in. "Ah, here we are…"

Kora opened the door to a broom closet. There was only one broom in there, however, an old Comet Two-Sixty that had apparently not been in use for ages. It had dust all over it, and when Kora took it out, she sneezed three times and sniffed as she wiped all of the dust off.

"There ye go," she said, handing it to Ginny. "Your way to Hogwarts."

Ginny beamed at the house elves with happiness. This was ingenious.

"Thanks," she said, and she hurriedly dashed to the front door, her wand in her right pocket.

&&&&&&&&&&

"How is Ginny getting back to 'Ogwarts?" Blanc asked as Draco and her were mounting his broom, and Draco sighed. It was now almost light outside, the sun fully in the sky. The trees surrounding them were blocking it, however, making the ground look dark and dead. There was a bitter chill sweeping around each of their bodies, making both of them shudder.

"She's writing Potter a letter to come and get her, and I don't expect he'll reject it," Draco said as his teeth chattered in the cold.

"Potter?" said Blanc perplexedly. "As in 'Arry Potter?"

"Yup," said Draco. "Apparently Ginny says he's the only person that'll come for her, but… ah, well, we'd better go. Hold on tight."

Just as Draco was about to kick off from the ground into the misty morning, Ginny came sprinting out of the house just in time.

"Wait!" she yelled to them. "Wait for me!"

Draco quickly turned around and smiled.

"What's that you've got?" he asked confusedly as he got off of his Nimbus 2000, striding over to her as Blanc sighed.

"Kora…" Ginny started. "She found it in a broom closet and supposedly it still works!"

Draco laughed slightly.

"So no Potter coming after all?" he asked.

"Obviously not," Ginny told him, smiling now more than ever. "Who's ready to fly?"

"I cannot fly," Blanc said at once, half-shrugging. "My muzzer said it was not lady-like."

Draco and Ginny laughed and looked at one another.

"I can't believe I never thought of that," Draco said. "Must've slipped my mind…"

"Well it doesn't matter now, we're going back, Draco," Ginny told him. She suddenly became quiet and excited. "We're going _home_."

"Yeah…" mumbled Draco, looking around and grinning to himself. "Home."

"Are we going or not?" called Blanc to them, and they turned to her.

"Let's ride," Draco said in a manly voice, and then muttered, "I've always wanted to say that."

Ginny rolled her eyes jokingly at this and hopped on her broom. Both Draco and Ginny kicked off from the grass and were flying into the periwinkle sky, yelling and laughing.

They had a reason to be happy. They were going home, after all.

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A/N: I know it's a tad short, but the last chapter was long, so oh well. This took forever, and I'm _extremely_ sorry for those that have been waiting. But hey, cool, you waited.

**_THANKS, AND REVIEW!_**

-goob-


	18. At Last

A/N: My God, I haven't written for months! I am so sorry for the long wait! The last chapter was short, yes, sorry about that as well. But yeah… this is the _18th _chapter, isn't that weird? This story has certainly come a long way, and I'm pretty sure this is the _not _the last chapter… anyway… here we gooooooooooooo! (Coincidently, I sound just like Mario.)

Chapter Eighteen: At Last

"I'm very disappointed in you, Lucius," said the cold voice, pacing in circles. The man, if you can say that, was the most grotesque you could ever see. His face was white as chalk, his eyes red slits, and his tongue like a snake's. From one glance at the man, there would be no guessing that he was dark, cruel, and of a vicious sort. Tom Riddle was his name.

"I thought I made it clear to you that your son was indispensable to me; not only to me, but also to _us_. Every single one of your fellow Death Eaters is resenting you right at this second."

The man laughed; a pitiless, merciless laugh that could have chilled anyone standing within a mile of his presence. The mere sight of him had tortured every living soul that he had ever come across, leaving him beneath the shadows and loathing the world.

"That Ginny girl was another thing. Potter is close to her, and he would've suffered as well if you had killed her!"

The man's voice was rising. He was angry. Tom Riddle looked at the other man he was talking to, Lucius Malfoy, who was on the floor, dead. Blood was still all around punctured skin, where his son, Draco, had stabbed him not more than an hour and a half before. Tom Riddle sighed heavily. He looked at a grandfather clock in the corner of the room and looked back over at Lucius.

"You put me to shame, Lucius," he said quietly. He stopped pacing suddenly, and bent down to study the dead man's face.

"What's that?" Tom Riddle said. "You're _sorry_?" The man laughed even louder this time, and stood back up to resume pacing. "Oh, Lucius, _bravo_. Not only did you let your own son kill you, you managed to let him get away to tell the whole bloody world what you did, which will then blame me."

Tom Riddle sighed once again. He slumped into a large red chair in the center of the room by the fire and thought about what he should do. In an instant, a decision was made.

All he had to do was get Draco Malfoy.

It all made sense. Ginny Weasley cared about him, and Ron Weasley cared about Ginny. And Hermione Granger cared about Ron, and Harry Potter cared about all of them put together. It would be the ultimate victory, counting off not just Harry Potter, but all of his pathetic little friends as well.

The whole nation would mourn in grief! Lord Voldemort would make his glorious return and rule the world like he had done so many years ago.

The only difficult question that burned Tom Riddle's brain was… how could he do it? How could he get them all at once when he knew they were intelligent enough to know his ways?

And then… it hit him.

Traps. Bribes. Lies. Tricks. And, of course… death.

&&&&&&&&&&

"Look!" shouted Ginny, the wind stinging her face like a whip. "There's the school! We're almost there!"

"Would you loosen up? You're cutting off the little circulation I have left!" Draco yelled to Blanc, who was holding on to Draco's stomach like a terrified cat.

They had been riding for nearly an hour. Ginny's Comet Two-Sixty kept going haywire at random, while the weight of two people made Draco's Nimbus 2001 lower every three minutes or so. All three pairs of eyes were filled with water as the wind whipped their faces, and Ginny was cold and extremely hungry, praying that once they get back there would be a huge feast. She hadn't had anything to eat for two days.

After about a minute or so, with the Hogwarts castle in view, all three safely landed on the school grounds, and Blanc wiped her leaking eyes.

"Remind me never to ride zat far on a broomstick again," she said in a flat tone. Draco looked at her, rolling his own eyes, and turned to Ginny.

"What are we supposed to do now? It's almost lunchtime…" Draco looked at his silver watch. "Should we go straight to Dumbledore?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes, I think that's the only choice we have."

Draco, Blanc, and Ginny opened the Great Doors and were surprised that the school was so quiet.

"Everyone's still in lessons," Draco said as he closed the doors behind him. Blanc looked around, studying everything that she possibly could.

"You know, it feels like ages since I have stepped foot into zis school," she murmured, staring at a statue to her right. "I sink maybe I took one to ze head not long ago."

Ginny sighed and started walking to Dumbledore's office. It wasn't long until they reached the Charms corridor that they ran straight into none other than Harry Potter.

He was walking rather quickly and just as he turned the corner he spotted Ginny and gasped.

"GINNY!" he yelled piercingly and gave her a tremendous hug that cut off more of her circulation than Draco's on the ride home.

Harry let go and looked at Ginny with sparkling eyes of excitement. "Everyone thinks you're dead! Wait until I tell them… you've come back!"

Before Ginny could even say a word, Harry hugged her again even harder. Suddenly, Draco stepped up.

"Look, Potter, now isn't the time for reunions, we're going to Dumbledore's office," he muttered cruelly, and took Ginny by the hand to continue walking.

"Wait a minute… what happened to you, Ginny?" Harry said. He had finally taken notice of Ginny's scrapes and bruises where Lucius had tortured her. "We need to get you to Dumbledore right away!"

Draco rolled his eyes once again. "That's what we're doing, Potter!" he shouted. Harry looked angrily at Draco.

"Well can't I come too? I care about Ginny just as much as you do, Malfoy," he said with malice. Draco laughed.

"Right," he mumbled. "The only reason you want to come along is so everyone thinks you're the one who saved Ginny, that you're the one with superior bravery and courage and this and that."

Harry scowled.

"Just bugger off and return to class, why don't you?" Draco then took Ginny by the hand once more and the three scurried away, leaving Harry behind looking abashed and confused.

"What was zat all about?" Blanc asked, chuckling.

"Erm… you wouldn't want to know," Ginny said shyly. Draco looked at her with pure venom and kept walking as fast as he could. Five minutes later they were standing at Dumbledore's office entrance.

"Draco," Ginny said. "I don't remember the password."

Neither did Draco. When Ginny had asked him if he knew the password when he was about to leave the Manor, he had said yes casually, not really listening to the question. At the time he was more concerned with Potter coming than anything else.

Draco searched his brain for every possible password but simply could not remember. He let out a cry of fury as he kicked the statue.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" the statue suddenly screeched, making Blanc give a slight yelp of shock.

"It talks!" she said. "_Mon Dieu, il parle!_"

"Will you tell us the password?" Draco said hurriedly, red in the face. "We've forgotten it."

"Let's see," the statue said rather sarcastically. "Why would I want to give you any satisfaction of knowing the password if you just kicked me?"

Draco's face turned even redder and he started muttering under his breath about how statues could be broken easily.

"Calm down," Ginny told him. "We can wait."

"WAIT?" Draco shrieked. "Dumbledore's got to know you're safe! And about my father! He needs to know! Where is he?!"

"I'm behind you," Dumbledore said quietly.

He gave Draco such a fright that he let out the same yelp Blanc had done just seconds before.

"Dumbledore!" he said. "Thank God, we've got to tell you – look, I – rescued – Ginny!"

The headmaster's twinkling eyes turned on Ginny, who half-grinned awkwardly. Blanc stood there, doing and saying nothing.

"Please," said Dumbledore softly. "Come into my office." He then looked at the statue. "Acid Pop."

Draco suddenly growled and murmured, "I was going to say that," as they followed Dumbledore up the stairs to his office.

Ginny and Draco sat in the chairs, and Blanc walked around, examining the odd objects in Dumbledore's office. At the moment she was having a conversation in French with a painting of a petite woman who was knitting in a rocking chair.

"Now," Dumbledore said, sitting behind his large desk. "I would like you both to tell me exactly what happened at the Malfoy Manor."

It was as if he already knew everything but would rather them tell it to him for some sort of relief. Ginny looked at Draco. Draco looked at Ginny.

"It's a long story, really," Ginny said suddenly. Dumbledore turned his head toward her intently, and she went on. "I'm surprised that I've gone through it so quickly…"

&&&&&&&&&&

"Did you hear?… the Weasley girl is back!"

"Iheard she was captured by a dragon…"

"Well _I_ heard she was captured by a Chinese Fireball!"

"Rubbish! It was a Norwegian Ridgeback, of course."

"Wrong again… I heard that it was _You-Know-Who himself_!"

"It wasn't," Harry said forcefully to Lavender and Parvati, after hearing them talk about nothing else than Ginny's surprising return. "It was Malfoy."

Lavender and Parvati gasped simultaneously.

"_Draco Malfoy_?"

"No, his father," explained Harry rather reluctantly. Why should he want to give Draco praise for rescuing Ginny, when it was he, Harry, who felt obligated to be her one and only protector? Maybe Draco had known about it the entire time and _pretended _to be a hero just to get him, Harry, out of the limelight. It wasn't a fact of heroics at all; Harry knew that; but what if Draco _did _know about it the entire time?

"Ron," Harry said, as he turned to Ron, who was stuffing his face with corn and potatoes.

"Enh?"

"I'm going to Dumbledore. I know Ginny and Malfoy are in there… I have to know what happened," he said. Hermione suddenly butted in with a calm, yet firm voice.

"Don't, Harry," she coaxed. "It may cause more than trouble."

"Like what?" Harry suddenly snapped. Hermione went on.

"Like rumors!" she shouted. Everyone stared at her, and Ron sat in silence. "You'll know the truth, Harry, just wait until Ginny is ready to tell you, and she will."

Harry couldn't believe how Hermione was acting. He felt as if she were angry with him, when only an hour before they had been happily conversing with Ron about how they were in lead of the Quidditch Cup.

"You don't understand, Hermione," Harry muttered. Ron continued to stare, as did the rest of the Gryffindor table. Seamus Finnigan wasn't blinking. Neville swallowed the last of his roast chicken. "You never do."

Then he got up hastily from the table and walked out of the Great Hall, his bag at his side. If he had to resort to eavesdropping, he was going to, whether anyone liked it or not.

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A/N: Did you like, did you like? I know it was short, but oh well. At least it's a suspenseful chapter! PLEASE review, I haven't gotten many since when I wrote in _November_; sheesh, it's been awhile. Love you all, and

**REVIEW!!**

-goob-


	19. The Famous Eavesdropper

A/N: I hoped you liked the last chapter, it was slightly difficult to write. I hope this chapter keeps you on your feet, because you won't believe what's going to happen. Eekity eek.

Disclaimer: Wait… why am I writing a disclaimer again?

Chapter Nineteen: The Famous Eavesdropper

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes settled on Ginny as she ended her story. The only part she had left out was when Draco killed his father, which made it seem as if Lucius had suddenly vanished. Dumbledore looked at her with what seemed like pity, then spoke calmly.

"Miss Weasley, I am sorry for your unfortunate crossing with Lucius, but right now the Ministry of Magic is trying to sort out what has happened to him," he said.

Ginny and Draco both swallowed, looking apprehensive. The only things heard were Fawkes ruffling his wings, and Blanc still talking to the painting ("_Je m'occupe réellement de Beauxbatons, mais je suis ici sous la présidence de ces deux se reposant…_").

"It seems to the Ministry that Lucius has completely disappeared," Dumbledore continued. "Somehow, when the Ministry arrived at the Manor, all they found were house elves."

Draco suddenly looked confused and turned whiter than usual.

"What about…?"

"Heidi Pembrose?" Dumbledore interrupted. Draco flushed. "Yes, she has disappeared as well. The Ministry believe that she ran off hours ago after all of you had left."

Ginny looked over at Draco, who was sitting in his chair, at a loss for words.

"She can't be dangerous," Ginny reassured him. "You did the Memory Charm, remember?"

Draco didn't find this reassuring in the slightest.

"Still," Draco said. "If… if Voldemort gets a hold of her, he can just as easily bring her memory back."

There was silence as Blanc laughed loudly ("_Vous êtes si drôle!_").

"You do have the correct assumption, Mister Malfoy," said Dumbledore lightly. "But Miss Pembrose is no use to Lord Voldemort… unless she has forbidden information…?"

Draco and Ginny shook their heads.

"No, sir," they said together.

"Well then," Dumbledore said, standing up slowly. Draco and Ginny followed this, and Blanc suddenly stopped talking as she looked over at them all. "Mister Malfoy, lunch has passed in your stay here, so you shall eat in my office."

Dumbledore flicked his wand and on his desk appeared a plate toppled with chicken, mashed potatoes, two rolls, and a goblet of pumpkin juice at the side.

"Miss Weasley, we must get you to the Hospital Wing immediately –"

"Professor, please, may I eat with Draco? I haven't eaten much in days…"

Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded.

"Of course, Miss Weasley," he said, and he gave another flick of his wand. He turned to both Ginny and Draco.

"I will have to escort Miss du Gris to the entrance hall and contact Madame Maxime," Dumbledore told them seriously. "Heaven knows what she has gotten herself into. Wait in here until I come back."

They silently nodded and watched Dumbledore and Blanc exit the office.

&&&&&&&&&&

Harry had had enough of this nonsense. Enough of it. Ginny had changed. In Harry's eyes, she had changed too much. Ron obviously hadn't noticed it, being as daft as Ron was, and Harry felt as if Hermione was refusing to meddle the situation.

Ginny had come back that day, bruises on her arms, probably scared out of her wits, Harry thought, and when he had tried to comfort her, that damn Malfoy ruined it. He ruined their connection. Whatever that connection was, Harry didn't know.

He sped down the corridors, making his way toward Dumbledore's office. He knew the password; he had been in the Headmaster's office earlier that day discussing Ginny's disappearance.

Suddenly, making Harry immediately halt where he was, there were voices coming down the corridor to where's Dumbledore's office bore entrance. Harry quickly stuffed himself into a small space in the wall where a statue of Hestia

the Headless stood. The voices came closer.

"You are Dumblydore?" said a voice that sounded vaguely recognizable. "I have heard about you, but cannot remember… ah, yes, you are Headmaster of 'Ogwarts, am I correct?"

"Correct you are, Miss du Gris," Dumbledore's voice said, still as withered as ever. Harry knitted his eyebrows in bewilderment. Blanc du Gris? Hadn't she gone missing too? It was all too confusing to bear. Harry listened intently for more.

"Yes, I am a bit out of it," said Blanc. She laughed. "But I am sure Madame Maxime will tell me what is going on."

"She shall," said Dumbledore croakily. "Come, Blanc, we must travel to the Great Hall and inform Professor McGonagall about all of this. I doubt that she will be happy."

Blanc laughed again in a bewildered sort of way and Harry made sure the corridor was clear as he crept out of his hiding place.

"Acid Pop," he hastily said to the statue, and it leapt to the side. Harry quickly climbed up the stone steps to the office, as quietly as he could, and pressed his ear against the door, listening hard.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco hadn't touched his food at all as Ginny feasted on her chicken. He seemed to be in deep thought. Dumbledore and Blanc had left only minutes ago. Suddenly, he spoke.

"Where do you think Heidi ran off to?" he said rather quietly.

Ginny stopped eating and looked up at him, setting down her chicken and licking her lips.

"I have no idea," she muttered. "Maybe she tried to find her way back to Hogwarts? Or would she not even know what Hogwarts was?"

"She wouldn't know," Draco said. "God, I wouldn't mind giving Potter a little memory blank. He's so… _interfering_."

"You shouldn't be so hard on him, Draco," said Ginny, taking a bite out of one of her rolls. "Harry cares a lot for me, why does that bother you so much?"

"Why _doesn't _it bother you, eh?" said Draco. Ginny glared at him.

"Oh, stop it," she said forcefully. "Don't go saying I'm crushing on Harry. Out of all people I thought you'd be the one to know I've been over him for this long." Ginny paused for a moment. "I just like him as a friend, that's all."

"That's all, is it?"

Draco got up from his chair and started pacing around, looking furious. Ginny seemed skeptical at his sudden behavior.

"I know he's a git, and he's a bit reckless, and yes, a bastard of an eavesdropper too, but you shouldn't rise to conclusions!" she yelled. "I hated Harry, you know that, but now we're… I guess… _okay_."

"_Okay_?" Draco said, chuckling. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Ginny sank back into her chair and sighed in anger.

"I don't know."

She then looked back up at Draco, who had stopped pacing and was staring at her.

"Does that make you feel better? I don't know what Harry and I _are _anymore, we just… _are_."

"That doesn't even make any sense," said Draco with an awkward laugh. He sat back down and took Ginny by the hands. She looked as if she could cry.

"I'm sorry," Draco told her. "But Potter isn't a saint, alright? Even he has flaws, and if he'd admit them I probably wouldn't hate him so much."

Ginny let out a stifled snort as though she thought this to be funny, taking her hands away and folding her arms.

"Harry has more flaws than you know," she said. "In fact, I'm surprised I ever even liked that stupid prat…"

"What's this all about, Ginny?" Draco interrupted, a confused expression on his face. "I mean, when we served our first detention you made it sound like you wanted Potter to be chopped into pieces, and then you two were friends, and now you're saying you hate him again?"

Ginny stared at him.

"I never said I hated him," she muttered. "And anyway, shouldn't that make you happy? That I detest Harry as much as you?"

Draco didn't answer at once. He sat back down in his chair and twiddled with a strange object on Dumbledore's desk casually before turning to Ginny.

"It would have made me happy before," he told her quietly. "It's just… it feels _weird_, you know? I remember you when I was in 2nd year – you were always so twitchy around Potter, like you couldn't do anything around him without feeling embarrassed. You've changed."

Ginny huffed.

"Draco, I was _eleven_. Do you expect me to stay the same for five years and be a meek little girl for the rest of my life?" she said sharply.

"I suppose not," Draco said as he helped himself to a roll.

&&&&&&&&&&

Harry couldn't believe what he had just heard. He wasn't angry that Draco and Ginny were together, he wasn't angry that Ginny hated him, and he wasn't angry that his right cheek was starting to numb from the stiff door.

The only reason Harry was angry was because their whole conversation had been about _him_.

He was a git. He was reckless. And he was an eavesdropper. That assessment basically summed up Ginny's feeling of him.

He had never felt more humiliated in his life, and he was alone. All alone, pressing his ear to Dumbledore's office door, desperate to hear just a little more, just so he could burst in and inform them that while they talked about how much they loathed him, he'd been listening the entire time…

Harry froze. Footsteps were coming up the stairs, very light and quick. He wished hopelessly that he had brought his Invisibility Cloak with him, and saw that a space of nothingness was right next to him, as though waiting for him to hide. The only way that someone would see him was if they looked behind their back.

Cat-like, Harry backed into the nook as far as possible and saw the outline of someone very familiar… someone with very bushy brown hair….

It was Hermione.

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A/N: Sorry for another short chapter, but - dun dunnn… what's going to happen? Ah, I dunno. We'll see. I'm thinking of ending this story in four different ways:

a) Another person dying and grief spreading all over, then writing a sequel avenging that person's death

b) Ending it with complete shock, but being happy altogether and writing a sequel with Voldemort, since he's planning to kidnap Draco and all….

c) Ending it completely happy with no sequel at all, or

d) Having the end with a person dying, no sequel, and my reviewers throwing rotten bananas at me for such a crappy ending.

All right, strike that last one. Please tell me which one you would prefer: a, b, or c. Or… d. If you really want. Hah. I'm out.

**REVIEW!!!**

**__**

-goob-


	20. The End of the Beginning

A/N: Oh man. The last chapter. I hope you have liked this story. grin

Chapter Twenty: The End of the Beginning

_Knock_. _Knock_. _Knock_.

The pounding on the door echoed throughout Dumbledore's circular office, waking up several sleeping portraits and causing Ginny to gasp surprisingly in her chair.

Draco slowly walked to the door and opened it up, where Hermione stood.

She looked quite unlike herself. Her hair was more frazzled than ever, her face was tear-streaked, and her eyes were very red.

Almost at once, Draco let out an audible scowl, clearly dismissing the fact that she had been bawling for the last hour.

"What do you want?" Draco said, but Hermione was looking at Ginny. She pushed past Draco and hurried over to where Ginny was sitting, where she gave her a tight hug.

"Oh, Ginny, I was so worried," Hermione said quietly, and she let go. A couple of tears leaked out of her eyes and Ginny awkwardly laughed.

"I'm alright, Hermione," she said. "Really, I'm okay… why are you up here?"

Hermione suddenly became serious. She stood up and looked over at Draco, then back at Ginny.

"Dumbledore told me to accompany you and… Draco…"- Ginny could tell that Hermione felt it very strange saying his first name -"to the Great Hall. He says he has an important announcement to make."

"Whatever about?" Draco said sarcastically, his arms folded. Hermione didn't answer, but merely glared at him seriously.

"The point," she told him in a harsh tone, "is that Dumbledore wants me to accompany you to the Great Hall. Come on, Ginny," she added.

Ginny stood up from her chair with Hermione and started walking towards the door, before she spotted a rather odd figure outside the office.

Hermione saw the confused look on Ginny's face and peered over where Ginny was staring. Suddenly, she put her hands on her hips and her expression changed in the blink of an eye.

"Harry!"

Draco whipped around and took a step backward, growling like a rabid dog.

Ginny heard a loud sigh coming from the shadows and the figure walked into the light. Yes, it was Harry. Ginny was at a loss for words as Draco yelled furiously.

"You! Potter! What the hell do you think you're doing?" he shouted as Harry leaned on the doorway.

Harry unexpectedly said in a cool voice, "I walked up here with Hermione to take you to the Great Hall."

Hermione rolled her eyes, taking Ginny by the hand and leading her onto the golden staircase that led up to Dumbledore's office. Harry and Draco followed.

"That's the absolute worst lie I've ever heard," Hermione muttered.

&&&&&&&&&&

It was strange, walking into the Great Hall, Ginny thought. It was empty, for the students had gone back to their classes after lunch, but Ginny felt as though they were all there, staring at her.

She glanced at Draco, expecting him to say some kind of snide remark, but he walked silently, once or twice giving Harry a look of disgust.

Harry himself kept looking over at Ginny, who forced herself to turn her head and instead stare at the student-less Slytherins and Ravenclaw tables.

"Dumbledore has asked that Ginny and Draco be placed in the chamber behind the staff table," Hermione suddenly said. "The one all the Champions of the Triwizard Tournament went into, remember?"

No one answered, though they all knew what she was talking about. Hermione looked sternly at Harry and said, "I guess Harry will have to go, too."

Draco snarled to himself and Ginny rolled her eyes at the both of them. Honestly, they could act so immature sometimes.

When they got to the chamber door, they opened it slowly and stepped inside, greeted by a fire cracking merrily, three or four lounge chairs, and self-portraits of witches and wizards.

Hermione stood in the doorway, her hand on the door handle. Apparently she didn't plan on staying.

"You all are to stay in here until dinner. You've all eaten, haven't you?" she said.

The three of them nodded silently as Hermione closed the door shut. There was an awkward silence until Ginny spoke.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered to herself rather than to Draco or Harry. "Barricading us in here. It's not as if I've died."

"That's not funny," said Draco seriously, not looking at her.

Ginny, surprised at his words, didn't say anything and sat rather unsteadily into one of the chairs in the middle of the room.

Harry had also sunk into one of the lounge chairs, his head in his hands. Ginny looked up at Draco, trying to figure out what to say. She found she couldn't say anything, though. Twice she opened her mouth, but no words came out. Instead she curled into a ball in her chair and tried to fall asleep, exhausted.

Two hours passed. Draco had drifted around the room and had finally sat in one of the chairs, his eyes opened, staring into the fire. Harry's were opened as well, but they were wandering around, possibly studying the portraits.

Ginny yawned and stretched, looking at Draco. He looked so surly, sitting there, rigid. She felt as though this were her fault; if she had just not gone to the Owlery and told him she couldn't make it in time…

"You're awake," Harry said, his eyes settling upon her. "Finally. You've been sleeping for hours."

Ginny didn't answer. She had been thinking of what to say to Draco… she found she couldn't say much, however; Harry was there. She had to pick her words carefully.

"Is… is Dumbledore going to tell everyone – what… what happened?" she asked Draco, but instead Harry answered with another question.

"What _did _happen?"

Draco instantly took his gaze away from the fire and settled his eyes on Harry, furious.

"God, Potter, can't you just leave it alone? You never fucking shut up!"

Not only did Harry look surprised, but Ginny did too. It had been so quiet, but now Draco's voice was reverberating off the walls, making it seem as though he had said it three times. He was definitely overreacting. Ginny hated when he was so harsh to Harry.

Harry stood up, looking positively livid.

"Don't tell me to shut up, Malfoy!" he said loudly. "I have the right to know! If you haven't figured it out for the last six years, Ginny just so happens to be my friend!"

Draco smirked.

"Is she?"

Harry said nothing. At first he wanted to tell them that he heard everything they said in Dumbledore's office, that Ginny admitted to not hating him anymore (even though she called him all those names… Harry didn't care anymore), that she and him were on speaking terms again… but once Malfoy said those two words… he was suddenly filled with doubt. Had Ginny revealed to Malfoy everything that Harry didn't know?

He looked at Ginny for help, who had grabbed the arms of her chair and looked as if she could cry.

"That's right, Potter," Draco spat triumphantly. "Go ahead and think what you want, but you'll never have Ginny, and deep down you know it. You lost her long ago."

Harry glared at him, pulsating with rage. He was shaking; his hands were now clenched in fists. He wanted nothing more to beat Malfoy to a pulp, but Harry knew Malfoy was right.

He had lost Ginny, and he'd never get her back.

But Harry knew something that Malfoy didn't.

"If I were you," Harry said in a threatening tone, "I'd think twice before telling everyone that you killed your own father."

Draco snapped. Leaving his wand tucked in his pocket, he grabbed Harry by the neck and pushed him against the wall. He didn't hear the portraits screaming in terror, or Ginny get up out of his chair.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" she cried, heaving Draco away from Harry. Harry massaged his throat tenderly as Draco moved aside, adjusting his clothes where Ginny had pulled.

"_Unless you have a death wish, Potter, you better hope you wake up in the morning with all of your body parts in the right places!_" he yelled. Harry merely rolled his eyes.

"Oo, I'm so scared, Malfoy's going to switch my body parts," he said in a childish voice. "Everyone will find out anyway, Malfoy… but then again, who would care? Your Death Eater of a dad helped Voldemort come back to life! He's the reason why no one can sleep at night! He's the reason your life has been a living hell!"

Draco was just about to explode. "_You know nothing, Potter!_" he bellowed. "_You know nothing about what happened! You know NOTHING!_"

Ginny's eyes were leaking with tears, almost bloodshot. She had clung onto Draco, restraining him from beating Harry to a bloody pulp. Harry himself was surprised.

"I know more than you'd expect, Malfoy," he said rather calmly. "You think I'd sit in the Great Hall, worrying about Ginny? I wanted to know what happened. And now I do."

Draco could not control himself.

"**YOU BASTARD**!" he practically screamed. Both Harry and Ginny winced as the sound split their ears. "Ginny was right, you _are_ a bloody eavesdropper, you good-for-nothing piece of –"

"What's going on in here?"

Hermione's voice suddenly interrupted Draco, echoing eerily off the walls. Draco calmed himself down and straightened up, as did Harry. Ginny wiped away the tears remaining on her crimson cheeks.

"Nothing," they all said at once. Hermione eyed them suspiciously but said nothing about this and continued.

"Everyone's finished eating," she said quietly. "You three are lucky these walls are thick; we thought that all of you were being attacked!"

No one said a word. Harry still looked slightly perturbed; his hair was even messier than it usually was, and his robes looked strangely lopsided.

"Well, come on now," Hermione said. "Dumbledore would like us all to sit at our own House tables."

&&&&&&&&&&

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione all seated themselves at the Gryffindor table uneasily, almost everyone's eyes on Ginny. She looked over at Draco at the Slytherin table, who was at once bombarded by his peers who undoubtedly wanted their questions to be answered. At that moment, however, Dumbledore stood and all was silent.

"As you all well know," he started. "Ginny Weasley was kidnapped three days ago."

More silence.

"But now, as you can see," Dumbledore went on happily, "Miss Weasley is back and healthy. I do not want anyone to question her until she is ready to answer, nor do I want anyone to ask questions to Draco Malfoy."

There were a few mutters from the people who knew nothing about Draco's rescue, but Dumbledore continued as if no one had spoken.

"Draco Malfoy saved Miss Weasley's life, and for that Mister Malfoy deserves a token of honor."

With that, Dumbledore began to clap. Following suit, the rest of the students began to clap as well, though half-heartedly. Draco Malfoy was not the sort of person you could call a hero.

The applause died down after awhile.

"Now, let us all return to our dormitories and have a goodnight's sleep. Off you go!"

The students in the Great Hall got up from their tables rather reluctantly, staring at Ginny as they walked past. She tried to ignore this as she got up herself. Purposely, she began the long way to Gryffindor Tower, the way no one else went. She did not want to talk to anyone at the moment… except for Draco.

He seemed to have read her mind.

"Ginny!" Draco gasped behind her. "Ginny!"

Ginny turned around quickly to see that Draco was running to her. Suddenly he stopped where she was and took a breath or two. "I wanted to – talk – to – you."

"About how you almost killed Harry?" said Ginny, blinking.

"Potter deserved what he got," Draco told her. "I told him that he should keep to his own business, but I guess the great prat needs a Hearing Charm –"

"Draco," Ginny interrupted him, tears welling up in her eyes. Draco immediately stopped, looking at Ginny in confusion.

"What is it?" he asked with concern. "What's wrong?"

The tears that had been welling up cascaded down Ginny's cheek; she tried not to burst out crying.

"Hold me."

Draco stood still for a moment or two before taking Ginny in his arms and holding her tight. He kissed her flaming red hair as she silently cried into his chest, her hands over her face.

"Shh," said Draco soothingly, clutching her even tighter. "It's alright, Ginny, everything will be fine."

Ginny sniffed and said, "What about… your father? What's going to happen to you?"

Draco had been thinking the same thing. What would happen to him? Surely he would be let go of all charges, wouldn't he? Wasn't it self-defense?

"I – I don't know."

There was a silence in which the world had stopped. No students walking down the corridor. No voices heard from the Great Hall. Everything seemed so unreal as he held a shaking Ginny. He didn't want to believe what had happened in a mere 24 hours.

He _couldn't_.

"This is the end, isn't it, Draco?" Ginny asked, looking up at him.

Draco looked into her dark brown eyes, wanting nothing more than to kiss her tears away and tell her everything was going to be okay, everything would turn out better in the end. He couldn't bring himself to do it. Somehow he didn't believe that everything was going to be okay.

"Yes, Ginny, it is the end," he told her softly. Their noses were centimeters apart…

"The end of the beginning."

-**THE END**-


End file.
